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SHALOM GOLDMANThe Wiles of Women/ The Wiles of Men The Wiles of Women/ The Wiles of Men Joseph and Potiphar's Wifein Ancient Near Eastern, Jewish, and Islamic Folklore

Sha lom Goldman

State University of New York Press

The author gratefully acknowledges the following for granting permission toquote from previously published material:The Jewish Publication Society for excerpts from Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures. Used by Permission.Princeton University Press for excerpts from James Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. Used by Permission.Simon and Schuster, Inc. for excerpts from The Koran Interpreted by A. J. Arbeny, translator. Copyright by George Allen and Unwin, Ltd. Used by Permission.The University of Chicago Press for excerpts from The Riad of Homer, R Lattimore, translator. Used by Permission.The illustrations are from a seventeenth-century Persian manuscript ofFirdawsl's YU.suf and Zuleikha (Dartmouth College Library, SpecialCollections, Hanover, NH)Published byState University of New York Press. Albany 1995 State University of New YorkAll rights reservedPrinted in the United States of AmericaNo part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoeverwithout written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrievalsystem or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic.electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical. photocopying. recording. orotherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.For information, address State University of New York Press.State University Plaza. Albany. NY 12246Production by Cynthia Tenace LassondeMarketing by Bernadette LaMannaLibrary of Congre ss Cataloging-i u-Public atlou Dat aGoldman, Shalom. The wiles of women/the wiles of men : Joseph and Potiphar's wife in ancient Near Eastern, Jewish, and Islamic folklore I Shalom Goldman. p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7914-2683-1 (he: alk. paper). -ISBN 0-7914-2684-X (pb: alk. paper) 1. Joseph (Son of Jacob)-Legends. 2. Potiphar's wife (Biblical figure)- Legends. 3. Legends, Jewish-History and criticism. 4. Legends-Middle East- History and criticism. 5. Middle Eastern literature-Relation to the Hebrew Bible. I. Title. BS580.J6G55 1995 398'.35-dc20 95- 17220 CIP10 9 8 7 6 54 3 2 IIn memory of my mother Judith Goldman 1924-1995 Contents

Illustrations viii

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction Joseph, Comparative Folldore, and

Questions of "Influence" xi

The Texts The Bible, The Qur'an, Ancient Egyptian

Literature, and the Iliad XXV

1. The Centrality and Significance of the Joseph Narratives 1

2. The Spurned Woman: Potiphar's Wife in Scripture and Folklore 313. The Egyptian Background of the Joseph Story 574. A Portrait of Joseph 795. The Women of the Joseph Story 936. Joseph's Bones: Linking Canaan and Egypt 119

I am indebted to colleagues who read and commented upon

the manuscript. among them Alan Tansman and BarbaraKreiger of Dartmouth College, Michael Cooperson of UCLA,Harvey Goldberg of the Hebrew University, and Ktziah Spanier ofThe New School for Social Research. Adel Allouche providedvaluable information on the Arabic sources. and Charles Stinsonof Dartmouth provided guidance in the use of Christian sources.My brother Art Goldman brought his usual good judgment tobear on questions of style and the use of Rabbinic texts. For allerrors. I alone bear full responsibility. My students at Dartmouth College, The New School forSocial Research, and the 92nd St. Y Jewish Omnibus Programprovided me with feedback and inspiration. My teacher CyrusGordon and his wife Connie Gordon encouraged me to completethis long-term project. Ted and Cynthia Arenson of SunnyOaks provided me with a "summer world" in which I could writeand pursue my research. My wife. Liora Alschuler, and my sonDaniel Goldman, were my frrst and best readers and editors,and it is to them that I owe the greatest todah mikerev halev. -;~.) i 4,1. f . ~ J "( 7_rr, , , ' I\ I v 1,./ / / ;,;:. '

..J I~' J<. :. l'.''"'J ~ ~ Jt J ?p, ~f' #]/o .v . ";,.t~ . I , ,

, I I

Joseph with His Father and His Brothers

One of the world's oldest recorded folktales tells the story of a

handsome young man and the older woman in whose house heresides. Overcome by her feelings for him, the woman attempts toseduce him. When he turns her down, she is enraged. Turning toher husband, she accuses the young man of attacking her. Thehusband, seemingly convinced of his wife's innocence, has theyoung man imprisoned or otherwise punished. lt is precisely thatpunishment that leads to the hero's vindication and eventual riseto power and prominence. In the West we know this tale from its terse and vivid narra-tion in the Hebrew Bible. In the latter part of Genesis we readthis episode as part of the adventures of Joseph in Egypt. Herises from his position as servant in the household of the Egyp-tian nobleman Potiphar to become administrator of all of Egypt.On his appointment to that position he is told by the Pharoah"Only the throne shall be greater than you." The pivotal enablingincident in his riSe to power is his earlier precipitous fall fromgrace while serving in the Egyptian's house. It was there that "hismaster's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph and said 'lie with me."'Joseph protests that if he were to do so both his master and Godwould condemn him. When Potiphar hears from his wife that"the Hebrew slave whom you brought into our house came todally with me," he is furious and has Joseph put in prison. It isin that prison that Joseph establishes a reputation as an inter-preter of dreams. a reputation that leads him to the Pharaoh'scourt. There he interprets the Pharaoh's dreams, rises in theroyal household, and eventually is appointed second to the king.xii Introduction

The Bible's is only one telling of a story that appears in the

scriptures and folklore of many peoples. The text of one of thesestories, the Ancient Egyptian 'Tale of 1\vo Brothers," may ante-date the text of the Bible. In post-Biblical Jewish literature thestory of Joseph and his master's wife was richly embellished. Inthe Qur'an, the scripture of Islam, a long and detailed narrative isdevoted to Joseph. Within that narrative, the story of hisencounter with his master's wife is both thematically central andelaborately detailed. At the core of all of these versions is thefolklore motif identified by Stith Thompson, pioneer of folkloreclassification, as "Potiphar's Wife: A woman makes vain overturesto a man and then accuses him of attempting to force her."1 Variations of the tale appear in cultures as far flung in placeand time as those of the Inuit, Classical Greece, and AncientMesopotamia, and one would have to agree with John Yohan-nan's assessment that "one would be hard put to find a story thathas had a wider circulation among more varied audiences over alonger period of time than this story.''2 As in the Biblical story of Joseph, "Potiphar's Wife" is oftenone motif, a narrative element, in a larger and more complexstory. Thompson defmed a motif as "the smallest element in atale having the power to persist in tradition." In our swvey ofparallel tales from a number of Near Eastern cultures, theremarkable staying power of this motif will become evident. Therelationship between variations on the Potiphar's Wife motif inthe Near Eastern cultural sphere is the subject of this study. Theepisode of Bellerophon in the Iliad, a story with many parallels tothe Joseph tale, will also figure in our discussion. While his-torical context will not be overlooked (we will inquire into thehistory and provenance of the texts) the focus will be on thel.iterruy aspects of the story. In Jewish Midrash and in one of itsIslamic counterparts, the 'Tales of the Prophets," the motif islavishly embellished, often with an emphasis on the greatness ofthe temptation that Joseph had to withstand. The more beautifuland seductive Potiphar's wife is in these tales, the more virtuousJoseph is in resisting her. In some tellings, we read of "Josephthe chaste," in others, he is a character more susceptible to pas-sion. And in some late legends and paintings we can see Josephactively pursuing his master's wife. The texts analyzed in this comparative study draw on threetraditions. l) Ancient Egyptian Literature: The Tale of Two Introduction xiii

Brothers (Papyrus D'Orbiney) and The Romance of Sinuhe. 2)

Biblical and Jewish Uterature: The Story of Joseph in the HebrewBible (Genesis 37-50). and its elaboration in Targum, Talmud,and early and late Midrashim; up to and including the thirteenthcentury Midrashic compendium, the Midrash HagadoP 3) IslamicLiterature: The TWelfth Siira of the Qur'an, (Siirat YU5uf, TheChapter of Joseph) and the legends transmitted in tajsir (exe-gesis), J:bdith (prophetic traditions), and the Qi!j~ al-anbiyd'(Tales of the Prophets). with emphasis on the material presentedin the anthologies of al-Tha'labi (eleventh century) and al-Kisa'i(early thirteenth century).4 Medieval Muslim historians (foremost among them al-'fctbari,838-923) also concerned themselves with the pre-history of theIslamic Middle East, and their narratives often open withaccounts of Biblical and other ancient peoples. Almost withoutexception they include the story of Joseph in their histories, andI will therefore weave some of the comments of these historiansinto the discussion. As al-'fctbarl wrote both a history and a com-mentary on the Qur'an (tajsirj we will have occasion to comparehis treatment of the Joseph story in the different genres. Bothhis History and his tajsir incorporate and organize a vast bodyof law and legend. Al-Tha'labi and al-Kisa'i among other antholo-gists. often mined al-'fctbarl's compendia for their own anthol-ogies. In a similar fashion. al-'fctbari himself had recourse toearlier Muslim attempts to link the prehistory of Islam to that ofthe Bible and other literatures of the ancient Near East. While the extant collections of ancient Egyptian literature area selection of the writings of a lost (and partially recovered) civili-zation. both the Torah and the Qur'an are canonized texts with along history of textual transmission. study. and commentary.Their unity and inviolability are accepted by the respectivebelievers in each religious tradition. For the believer, the textoriginates in the act of divine revelation. While the Enlight-enment endeavor of Biblical criticism {and its younger counter-part, source-criticism of the Qur'an) has shaken the foundationsof belief in the divinely revealed character of scripture, it has notdestroyed those foundations completely. Even for skeptics andnon-believers. a view of scripture as a unified and integral workprevails. And within scripture, any given narrative, such as thestory of Joseph. has achieved unity in the minds of generationsof readers. Among literary critics and other professional studentsxiv Introduction

of scripture any given narrative within the text may be analyzed

into its component parts: but most readers retain a notion ofthe unity of the text and its distinct narratives. This is not trueof the legends that appear in elaborations of scrtptural narra-tive. The community of believers does not affirm their form andauthortty. The works in which these legends appear are com-pilations; though a certain sanctity may be attached to them,neither their essential unity nor their revealed character areaffirmed. 1bis flexibility and malleability of "Midrash" (elaboration ofscrtptural narrative) accounts for its appeal to modem literacysensibilities. Novelists, critics, and literacy histortans now seemenamored of Midrash as genre and as an analytic tool. A similar,and earlier, appreciation of the genre's creative possibilitiesaccounts for the tendency among the weavers of legend, Jewish,Christian, or Muslim, to borrow legends one from another.Elements of tales that may be traced to an "ortginal" Jewish,Chrtstlan, or Muslim source were easily incorporated into thenarratives of a sister religion. One of our tasks will be to trace theskeins of this commerce in narrative creativity. The histortcal moment when a given story is transmittedfrom one culture to another is notortously difficult to pinpoint.There is much scholarly speculation on Jewish-Islamic inter-action in this sphere; but let the reader beware, claims about"ortginal versions" and "direct influence" are difficult to substan-tiate. In the nineteenth century, considerable scholarly energieswere expended on proving that the Qur'ful's story of Joseph was"borrowed" or "stolen" from Jewish and Chrtstian narrative tra-ditions. In this century, a more objective view has prevailed, onewhich recognizes the limitations of our knowledge of the contextin which Islam emerged. and at the same time, respects Islam'sown claim to originality. The emergence of Islam in seventhcentury Arabia occurred against a Iich and diverse religiousbackground. We know that there were Jewish communities (andChrtstian monks) in Medina, the heartland of Islam. and in thewider Hijaz. The Qur'an testifies to the lively interactions andclashes between these communities and nascent Islam. butaside from the Qur'an. we have little independent matertal fromwhich we can form a picture of Arabian Judaism and Chrtstl-anity in the immediate pre-Islamic pertod. In the Jewish case,aside from what the Qur'an has to say of the Jews, we have no Introduction XV

textual evidence from seventh century Arabia. The first two

Islamic centuries (the seventh and eighth Christian centuries) area blank page so far as Arabian Jewish sources are concerned. Inspeaking of the history of the Jews of Arabia from antiquity to theearly Islamic centuries, Gordon Newby noted that "the majority ofthe sources available to us were not written or created by theseJews, but are writings or tales from other people who were oftenhostile to the Jews or indifferent to their activities. "5 S. D. Goitein,an earlier generation's dean of historians of the medieval Medi-terranean world, posits the existence in Arabia of a "Bnai Moshe,"a pre-Rabbinic group of Jews for whom Moses was the centralfigure, and then goes on to suggest that the prophet-centeredfolklore of these Jews may have reached the ears of MuJ:runmadand his followers. While this is an intriguing theory, it cannot besubstantiated. Whatever the mode of transmission might havebeen. it is clear, as Rueven Firestone has noted, that betweenJews and Muslims there was "a shared realm of religious andliterary discourse during the early Islamic period. ''6 Despite these difficulties in assigning a date and method tothe transmission of tales, Jewish and Muslim legends offer thestudent of folklore a particularly rich treasure house of tales forcomparative study. Narrative elements common to both tradi-tions are embedded in a complex matrix of cultural reciprocityand mutuality. Goitein spoke of the "need" that Muslim readershad for the details omitted from Qur'aruc narratives, a needsimilar to one that Jewish readers of the Bible had satisfiedearlier through the endeavor of Midrash. He described thedevelopment of Islamic analogues to Midrash in this way: "Therearose in early Islam a class of professional storytellers, whosesubject was mainly the "prophets," i.e., the heroes of the Qur'an.These storytellers freely borrowed from Jews and Christians,and in particular, from the vast literature of the Midrash, thepopular exposition of the Bible. Naturally, they added materialfrom other sources and from their own imagination. In their tum,these "Tales of the Prophets" are echoed in some of the laterJewish Midrashim. which may contain some Qur'anic mateiial."7 But we err if we view the ''Tales of the Prophets" (Qi~~ al-anbiya') literature as a mere reflex of a "Midrashic impulse," ofthe need to elaborate on scripture. From a history of religionsstandpoint, the compilation of these tales may be seen as oneIslamic attempt to "defme the place of nubuwwa, or prophecy,xvi Introduction

in God's scheme of things."8 For Muslims, Ylisuf/Joseph is one

of a long series of prophets, a roster which includes figures fromthe Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and prophets of Arabianprovenance. As William Brirmer has noted, "the more scholarlyapproach to the issue of prophecy in Islam is addressed in theo-logical and philosophical writings. A parallel, and more popular,attempt to understand prophecy, is a presentation, usually inchronological order, of the lives of the vartous prophets whomAllah has sent to mankind beartng his message, the response ofeach one's community to his message, as well as the ultimatefate of each of these prophets. "9 The most elaborate and fanciful of these retellings of theQur'an's stories were dubbed Isra'iliyat (Israelite) stories by someof the more rigorous Muslim scholars. This was not necessartlyan attack on the stories alleged (or actual) Jewish origins, ratherit was an expression of displeasure with the whole endeavor offanciful elaboration of the Qur'an's narratives. When, in thefourth and flfth Islamic centuries (the tenth and eleventh cen-turies c.E.) many of the Isra~lfryat were incorporated into the ~al-anbiya', the Tales of the Prophet genre, the genre as a wholewas roundly condemned by the stricter Muslim theologians. The late Haim Schwarzbaum. an Israeli folklorist who pio-neered in the comparative study of Jewish and Islamic legends,pointed out that a similar attitude toward the study of legendsexists in some modern Jewish circles and that he could "stillremember the similar negative attitude towards popular stacy-telling exhibited by orthodox leaders of Polish Jewry forty yearsago in his native city of Warsaw." While condemnation of thestudy of Midrash is unusual in Rabbinic Judaism, it is true thatthe study of ha1akha. Jewish law. was considered a more worthyendeavor. Louis Ginzberg's comment, that in Judaism, "legendsare the handmaidens of the law," is a reflection of the subordinatestatus attached to making the study of Midrash one's primacyendeavor. Midrash often served to encourage adherence to thelaw. That Joseph acted appropriately in resisting the advances ofhis master's wife, and that his actions should be emulated, is anobviously halakhic point. Less obvious, and often emphasized inJewish lore, is that Joseph kept other traditions of his fatherwhile living in a foreign land. As various Midrashim would have it,Joseph, in Egypt, ate only kosher food, taught his sons theHebrew language. and as noted in Genesis, arranged for his ownburial in the land of Israel. Introduction xvll

The historical development of rabbinic literature reflects the

greater importance of Halakhic texts. For these texts wereorganized first. in the Mishnah (c. 200 c.E.) and in the Talmuds(c. 500-600 c.E.). Only later were the legends that elaboratedscriptural narrative organized into the Aggadic tales of Midrash.As Ginzberg's student Shalom Spiegel noted, "While attemptswere repeatedly made to systematize the Halakhah, no suchefforts were made for the non-legal parts of oral tradition, all themiscellany of literature known as Aggadah. Even when thelegends were assembled in special books, the principle of theirarrangement was purely mechanical: they were strung to thepassages of scripture which they employed or elaborated. "10 Works both scholarly and popular categorize Midrash as"folklore." But to call these collections of tales "folklore" is not todenigrate or undervalue them. In the sense that elaborations ofscripture constitute a body of transmitted stories that appear inmany variations, they fit one of the many definitions of folklore.That aggadot (stories, folktales) are no longer transmitted orally,but are fixed in textual traditions, (compiled by writers we nowcall aggad.ists), does not exclude them from the folklore rubricand the methodology of folklore studies. 11 The Joseph stories that we will encounter in this compara-tive study are replete with tales of jealousy, sibling rivalry,sexual temptation, and magical praxis. It should not surprise usthat storytellers of different traditions were tempted to borrowone from another. When stories are this compelling, and whenthey touch upon the forbidden and the exotic, cultural bordersare remarkably fluid. But it is important that we not jump toconclusions about stories that seem at first glance similar, butafter a close reading, turn out to be markedly different. Thistendency to facile parallel identification is all too evident in thearea of translation into English. Because of the Biblical orien-tation of many translators, the scriptures of other cultures,including that of Islam, often strike the English reader as vari-ants of the Bible. Often this impression is created by the trans-lator; it is not inherent in the text. Recourse to the originallanguage and text yields different results, and may sharpen ourappreciation of the differences between traditions. For these reasons, conclusions concerning mutual influencewill be made with caution. To validate any comparisons or con-trasts made, I will use the methodologies of folklore studies andcomparative philology. The languages of these texts-Ancientxviii Introduction

Egyptian, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic- are, since the late eight-eenth centuxy, classified as Semitic (or, more recently, Hamito-Semitic). But long before this scientific classification wasadvanced. the "familial" relationship between these languageswas recognized by medieval Jewish and Muslim scholars. The comparative study of Jewish and Muslim scripture andlegend was once a topic reserved for learned dissertations andscholarly monographs. Recently. it has become a controversialtopic with political implications. The Arab-Israeli conflict, andthe welter of conflicting emotions that it evokes. has intrudedinto what was once a purely scholarly domain. On both theIsraeli and Arab sides, politicians, religious reformers, andsocial critics, advance territorial and historical claims basedupon scripture and the post-scriptural narrative traditions. 12 In the Western world, and particularly in the United States.political figures often refer to the "Biblical" dimensions of theArab-Israeli conflict. In the mid-1980s. former President Carterpublished a book on the Arab-Israeli conflict titled The Blood ofAbraham. The book's concept demonstrates that a Biblicizingapproach to the modern Middle East is not limited to the Chris-tian Right. which tends to see the apocalyptic aspects of thestruggle; it is equally present on the Christian left and center,which, in its search for peace and reconciliation appeals to thecommonality of the "People of the Book." 1his biblicizing tendencywas evident in President Clinton's speech at the September 1993White House ceremony at which the Israeli-Palestinian accordswere signed. The speech was fl.lled with Biblical allusions, anddescribed the Middle East as "that hallowed piece of earth, thatland of light and revelation, the home to the memories of Jews.Muslims, and Christians throughout the world." Comparative study of Jewish and Muslim legends antedatesthe now century-old Arab-Israeli conflict. It is part of a Westerncultural endeavor in which scholars have been engaged foralmost two centuries. Since the Enlightenment, European schol-arship, in its restless search for the origins of religions andcultures, focused on the roots of Christianity's "sister religions,"Judaism and Islam. The apparent similarities between these twotraditions engaged the attention of scholars of comparativereligion. In many scholarly tomes, Jewish and Islamic texts weretranslated, compared, and contrasted. But for the most part. thefoundation stories of Christian scripture and history were sparedthe comparative approach. Even today, in the age of the scientific Introduction xix

study of religion, there is a tendency to shy away from com-

parative study of the Gospel narratives. This is not to say thatthey are not examined and scrutinized in great detail; they are,but they are seldom compared to, and contrasted with, similartales from non-Christian traditions. As folklorist Alan Dundesnoted, one of the classics oflate nineteenth centwy comparativestudies was Sir James Frazer's three volume Folklore of the OldTestament; there was no parallel study on the folklore of theNew Testament. "It was perfectly all right to argue that OldTestament or Jewish heroes were folkloristic rather than his-torical. But heaven forbid that a proper member of the BritishHouse of Lords should apply this reasoning to the life of Jesus!Moses might be folklore but Jesus was history or, to put itanother way, Moses was 'false' while Jesus was 'true. '" 13 For Christians, the scriptures and legends of the Jews andthe Muslims were a safer area of inquiry, and from the 1830sonward there was a steady stream of works, in German, English,and French, on the quaint, colorful and similar folkways and folklegends of the non-Christian monotheistic faiths. The assump-tion that the origins of both Judaism and Islam lie in an imag-ined "Semitic" religion (very much on the model of "Semiticlanguages," the philological model advanced in the 1780s), wasexemplified in the title and text of the most influential work ofthe genre, William Robertson Smith's Lectures on the Religion ofthe Semites: The FUndamental Institutions (1901). While Robert-son Smith's examples of cultic parallels to Biblical law weredrawn from the then quite limited knowledge of pre-IsraeliteCanaanite religion, he does make reference to pre-Islamic andIslamic cultic practices, and sees them as the manifestation ofthe religious impulse in one "Semitic" cultural sphere. Many late nineteenth and early twentieth centwy compara-tive studies of Islam and its "sister religion," Judaism, attemptedto prove that Qur'aruc narrative, and later Muslim elaborationson it, were directly influenced by Jewish or Christian legendscirculating in seventh century Arabia. More recent studies, inwhose spirit I proceed, have moved beyond arguments aboutinfluence, with their emphasis on "who was there flrst," to amodel in which mutuality is acknowledged. Yes, historically,Judaism and Christianity preceded Islam, and elements from theearlier traditions may appear, in transmuted form, in Islamictexts. But it is equally demonstrable that Islamic legends repaidthis cultural debt by leaving their distinctive mark on Jewish andXX Introduction

Christian stories that were told and written after the emergenceof Islam. And it is important to take into account the classicalMuslim view that Islam offers us a pure, original, unsullied"version" of each of the "Stories of the Prophets." For Muslims,Jewish, and Christian retellings of stories that appear in theQur'an are distortions, deliberate or otherwise, of what Islamclaims is the original tale. 14 We have seen that the study of Jewish and Muslim texts,and of the Joseph story in particular, touches on the question ofChristian perception of the other monotheistic faiths and uponcontemporary Middle Eastern politics. The variant readings ofthe Joseph story also have implications for the study of sexualpolitics. One common reading of the Potiphar's Wife episodeassigns all blame to the woman; the younger man is exonerated.She tempted the young man. and, in many of the retellings ofthe seduction attempt, this occurred on more than one occasion.The wife's behavior, and the young servant's reactions. wereunderstood in the context of assumptions about male andfemale roles in the social order. This was true in Ancient Egypt,Ancient Israel, and post-Biblical Jewish societies. In the Qur'anthis is explicitly spelled out: when her husband doubts thetruth of his wife's version of the encounter with Joseph, hegeneralizes from her behavior to the behavior of all women."TI1is is of your women's guile, surely your guile is great." Andwhen his wife's companions are also smitten with Joseph, weread that "God turned away from him their guile." A simplistic reading of "women's guile," one that brands thisphrase as an illustration of patriarchal misogyny, overlooks aparallel theme, that of "the wiles of men." Genesis abounds intales of trickery both female and male. Whether gender is aprimary factor in the construction and depiction of the trickstercharacter is an issue that we will deal with at a number ofpoints in this study. In many Islamic and Jewish legendsJoseph does not lack guile, he is not innocent of complicity inhis situation; he too is susceptible to passion and capable oftrickery. In some of our versions Joseph is sorely tempted bythe older woman, a woman he bas tempted by his provocativebehavior, and he is about to act on his impulses when stoppedby divine intervention. The Qur'an states: "For she desired him;and he would have taken her, but that he saw the proof of hisLord." Though for cultural reasons, "the wiles of women" are Introduction xxi

often highlighted in our texts, I will argue that in the depictions

of the heroes and villains in our tale neither gender is spared.The acerbic wit and social commentary often embedded in folk-loric accounts is at its sharpest in its critique of gender relations,and we may fmd that Joseph is not as saintly, nor Potiphar'swife as villainous, as ftrst impressions of tradition would have it.In some versions the young Joseph is arrogant and vain. Otherstories paint Potiphar's wife in a sympathetic light. Gender issues, which inform our discussions of the culturesfrom which the respective Joseph stories emerged, must beviewed within a larger cultural matrix. Gender is constructeddifferently in each culture, though one culture may have con-siderable influence on another. In Middle Eastern societies therewas a degree of cultural continuity remarkable for its strengthand longevity. But continuity does not imply identity across vastspans of time. The norms of acceptable social behavior werevastly different in Biblical Israel, Talmudic Babylonia, and earlyIslamic Arabia. On reflection, this may seem obvious, but atendency to think of the Middle East as the "eternal orient" or"unchanging East" may obscure this obvious point. The statusof women in Biblical Israel and the reflection of that status inGenesis will be our departure point. But from that historicalpoint onward, women's status, along with other social norms,changed. How it changed is, to some extent, reflected in narra-tive traditions. 15 Linked to our awareness of mutual and reciprocal influencebetween the folklores of Judaism and Islam is a parallel aware-ness that the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam,were themselves heir to the Ancient Near Eastern and Hellen-istic cultural worlds from which they emerged. As a scholar ofthe Muslim-Jewish cultural symbiosis recently remarked, "Oneshould not think in terms of influences or cultural borrowingonly, however. It has been said that the Near East resembles apalimpsest, layer upon layer, tradition upon tradition, inter-twined to the extent that one cannot really grasp one withoutthe other, certainly not the later without the earlier, but oftenalso not the earlier without considering the shapes it tooklater. "16 A half century earlier Gustav von Grunebaum, in anessay on the interplay between the Islamic and the Greekcultural spheres, bemoaned the "all too strict separation betweenoriental and classical studies." Such artificial distinctionsxxii Introduction

between disciplines, von Grunebaum felt, accounted for "the

relative backwardness of our knowledge in this field. "17 The mutual interconnectedness of Jewish and Muslim folk-lore, and the relationship between these traditions and theirNear Eastern antecedents, is at the core of this study. Theseconnections have been explored in the last decade in the workof Marilyn Waldman, William Brinner, Gordon Newby, andReuben Firestone; lengthier treatments of individual talesappear in James Kugel's In Potiphar's House (1990) and JacobLassner's Demonizing the Queen of Sheba (1993). This book willfocus on what may be the most often told and retold of thesetales. Joseph and Potiphar's wife. In order to study the develop-ment of the Potiphar's Wife motif, we must view this part of theJoseph tale in its scriptural context. Therefore. I often will makereference to the Biblical Joseph narratives (Genesis 37- 50) intheir entirety. Similarly, the Ancient Egyptian Tale of TwoBrothers, and Stirat Yusuf in the Qur'an, though both centeredon our motif, situate that motif within a much wider context. Inaddition to The Potiphar's Wife Motif. folklorists see a number ofother motifs at work in these narratives from Ancient Egypt,Ancient Israel, and seventh century Arabia. These include themotif of 'The Wise Man as Saviour" 18 in which a man, "throughhis god-given ability to interpret dreams, sees into the future andsaves the nation from disaster." Also present in the Josephnarratives is ''The Motif of the Young Man Triumphant" 19 inwhich a younger man triumphs over adversity and reaches ahigh station. These motifs may all be present in the "versions" of Joseph,but with differing degrees of emphasis in each retelling. TheGenesis narrative, in which these three motifs are stronglyrepresented, will remain our center of reference throughout thisstudy. This is not to imply that the Biblical version is somehowsuperior, nor to indulge in what one prominent critic has called"cultural imperialism." Nor do I mean to assert that the Biblicalversion is an "original" from which all other versions haveborrowed. We shall see that the situation is much more complexthan that. But I begin with the Bible to assert its centrality inWestern culture, and use it as a point of departure for discus-sion of the scriptures and legends of other cultures. A study of the structure and content of the Joseph narra-tives in Genesis 37-50 will be the focus of my first chapter.Within that chapter, I proceed to a comparative discussion of Introduction xxiii

the parallel Islamic material and show how the Joseph storieswere used in disputations between Muslims and Jews, as wellas between competing Islamic sectarian groups. Chapter Two isdedicated to Joseph's fateful encounter with Potiphar's wife. andit is in this part of the tale that the Egyptian background is mostelaborately delineated, and the Jewish-Islamic cultural inter-action is at its liveliest. In Chapter Tirree, I address a questionthat has long occupied Egyptologists and Biblical scholars-how"authentically Egyptian" is the milieu described in Genesis? Dothe names, places. and events of the story reflect an historically-based Egyptian reality? Or are they simply anachronistic detailsprovided by a late author to authenticate his or her tale? In Chapter Four, I draw a portrait of the young Joseph. Con-structing this portrait enables us to compare and contrast des-criptive elements from the Egyptian, Biblical and Qur'anicsources. Chapter Five is devoted to the depiction of women in thenarratives. These include Joseph's mother Rachel. his brotherJudah's daughter-in-law Tamar. the elusive and legendary Seral].bat Asher. Joseph's wife Asenath, and the companions ofPotiphar's wife, "the women of the city." Feminist readings of ourtexts, readings that call into question the validity of earlierscholarly evaluations of women's roles in Biblical Israel, RabbinicJudaism, and Islam, will enable us to view the stories of thesewomen in a fresh light. Chapter Six, "Joseph's Bones, UnkingCanaan and Egypt," demonstrates that even in death Josephremained a compelling figure in folklore, particularly in the realmof popular religious practices. For the Jewish and Muslim fascina-tion with Joseph extended to his mortal remains, and Joseph'sname came to be a charm against malevolence and evil magic. The text of the Potiphar's Wife episode in Genesis, and par-allel accounts in Ancient Egyptian literature, Homeric Epic, andthe Qur'an, are presented following this introduction. The post-scriptural elaborations of the motif. elaborations that appear infragmentary form in the written folklore and histories of Jewsand Muslims. are cited and quoted throughout this book. This foray into comparative Ancient Near Eastern, Jewish.and Islamic lore, will, I trust. be both stimulating and rewarding.Uke the situation of Joseph in his master's house, the endeavorof comparative study is strewn with pitfalls. But with somewisdom and prudence, we may emerge enriched and enlightenedby the experience. ------The Women of the City at Zuleikha's Banquet The Texts: The Hebrew Bible, The Qur'an, Ancient Egyptian Literature, and The Iliad

The Hebrew Bible: Genesis 39:1-23

When Joseph was taken down to Egypt, a certain

Egyptian, Potiphar, a courtier of Pharaoh and his chiefsteward, bought him from the Ishmaelites who hadbrought him there. The Lord was with Joseph, and hewas a successful man, and he stayed in the house of hisEgyptian master. And when his master saw that theLord was with him and that the Lord lent success toeverything he undertook. he took a liking to Joseph. Hemade him his personal attendant and put him in chargeof his household, placing in his hands all that he owned.And from the time that the Egyptian put him in chargeof his household and of all that he owned, the Lordblessed his house for Joseph's sake, so that the blessingof the Lord was upon everything that he owned, in thexxvi Texts

house and outside. He left all that he had in Joseph's

hands and, with him there. he paid attention to nothing save the food that he ate. Now Joseph was well built and handsome. After a time, his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph and said, "Lie with me." But he refused. He said to his master's wife, "Look, with me here, my master gives no thought to anything in this house, and all that he owns he has placed in my hands. He wields no more authority in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except yourself, since you are his wife. How then could I do this most wicked thing, and sin before God?" And much as she coaxed Joseph day after day, he did not yield to her request to lie beside her, to be with her. One such day, he came into the house to do his work. None of the household being there inside, she caught hold of him by his garment and said, "Lie with mel" But he left his garment in her hand and got away and fled outside. When she saw that he had left it in her hand and had fled outside, she called out to her servants and said to them, "Look, he had to bring us a Hebrew to dally with us! This one came to lie with me; but I screamed loud. And when he heard me screaming at the top of my voice, he left his garment with me and got away and fled outside." She kept his garment beside her, until his master came home. Then she told him the same story. saying. 'The Hebrew slave whom you brought into our house came to me to dally with me; but when I screamed at the top of my voice, he left his garment with me and fled outside." When his master heard the story that his wife told him, namely, 'Thus and so your slave did to me," he was furious. So Joseph's master had him put in prison, where the king's prisoners were confined. But even while he was there in prison, the Lord was with Joseph: He extended kindness to him and disposed the chief jailer favorably toward him. The chief jailer put in Joseph's charge all the prisoners who were in that prison, and he was the one to carry out everything that was done there. The chief jailer did not supervise Texts xxvii

anything that was in Joseph's charge, because the Lord

was with him, and whatever he did the Lord madesuccessful.

The Qur'an: Sura 12: 23-35

Now the woman in whose house he was

solicited him, and closed the doors on them."Come," she said, "take mel" "God be my refuge,"he said. "Surely my lord has given mea goodly lodging. Surely the evildoers do not prosper."For she desired him: and he would have taken her,but that he saw the proof of his Lord.So was it, that We might turn away from himevil and abomination: he was one of Our devoted servants.They raced to the door: and she tore his shirtfrom behind. They encountered her masterby the door. She said, "What is the recompenseof him who purposes evil against thy folk,but that he should be imprisoned, or a painful chastisement?"Said he, "It was she that solicited me":and a witness of her folk bore witness,"If his shirt has been torn from beforethen she has spoken truly, and he is one of the liars:but if it be that his shirt has been tornfrom behind, then she has lied, and he is one of the truthful."When he saw his shirt was torn from behindhe said, "This is of your women's guile; surely your guile is great.Joseph, tum away from this: and thou, woman,ask forgiveness of thy crime: surely thou art one of the sinners."Certain women that were in the city said,'The Governor's wife has been soliciting herpage; he smote her heart with love: we see her in manifest error."xxviii Texts

When she h eard their sly whispers, she sent

to them, and made ready for them a repast, then she gave to each one of them a knife. "Come forth, attend to them." she said. And when they saw him, they so admired him that they cut their hands, saying. "God save us! This is no mortal; he is no other but a noble angel." "So now you see," she said. "This is he you blamed me for. Yes. I solicited him, but he abstained. Yet if he will not do what I command him, he shall be imprisoned, and be one of the humbled." He said, "My Lord, prison is dearer to me than that they call me to; yet if Thou turnest not from me their guile, then I shall yearn towards them, and so become one of the ignorant." So his Lord answered him. and He turned away from him their guile; surely He is the All-hearing, the All-knowing. Then it seemed good to them. after they had seen the signs. that they should imprison him for a while.

Ancient Egyptian Literature:

"The Story of Two Brothers"

Now they say that once there were two brothers of

on e mother and one father. Anubis was the name of the elder, and Bata was the name of the younger. Now, as for Anubis, he had a house and had a wife, and his younger brother lived with him as a sort of minor. He was the one who made clothes for him and went to the fields driving his cattle. He was the one who did the plowing and who harvested for him. He was the one who did all kinds of work for him which are in the fields. Really, his younger brother was a good grown man. There was no one like him in the entire land. Why, the strength of a god was in him. Now after many days after this, they were in the fields and ran short of seed. Then he sent his younger Texts xxix

brother, saying: "Go and fetch us seed from the village."

And his younger brother found the wife of his elderbrother sitting and doing her hair. Then he said to her:"Get up and give me some seed, for my older brother iswaiting for me. Don't delay!" Then she said to him: "Goand open the bin and take what you want! Don't makeme leave my combing unfinished!" Then the lad wentinto his stable, and he took a big jar, for he wanted tocany off a lot of seed. So he loaded himself with barleyand emmer and came out canying them. Then she said to him: "How much is it that is onyour shoulder?" And he said to her: "three sacks ofemmer, two sacks of barley, five in all, is what is on myshoulder." So he spoke to her. Then she talked with him,saying "There is great strength in you! Now I see yourenergies every day!" And she wanted to know him as oneknows a man. Then she stood up and took hold of him and said tohim: "Come, let's spend an hour sleeping together! 1biswill do you good, because I shall make fine clothes foryou!" Then the lad became like a leopard with great rageat the wicked suggestion which she had made to him,and she was very, very much frightened. Then he arguedwith her, saying: "See here-you are like a mother to me,and your husband is like a father to me! Because-beingolder than I-he was the one who brought me up. What isthis great crime which you have said to me? Don't say itto me again! And I won't tell it to a single person, now willI let it out of my mouth to any man!" And he lifted up hisload, and he went to the fields. Then he reached his elderbrother, and they were busy with activity at their work. Now at the time of evening, then his elder brother leftoff to go to his house. And his younger brother tendedhis cattle, and he loaded himself with everything of thefields. and he took his cattle in front of him, to let themsleep in their stable which was in the village. But the wife of his elder brother was afraid becauseof the suggestion which she had made. Then she took fatand grease, and she became like one who has beencriminally beaten, wanting to tell her husband: "It wasyour younger brother who did the beating!" And herXXX Texts

husband left off in the evening, after his custom of every

day, and he reached his house, and he found his Wife lying down, tenibly sick. She did not put water on his hands, after his custom, nor had she lit a light before him, and his house was in darkness. and she lay there vomiting. So her husband said to her: MWho has been talking with you?" Then she said to him: "Not one person has been talking with me except your younger brother. But when he came to take the seed to you he found me sitting alone, and he said to me: 'Come, let's spend an hour sleeping together! Put on your curls!" So he spoke to me. But I wouldn't listen to him: 'Aren't I your mother?- for your elder brother is like a father to you!' So I spoke to him. But he was afraid, and he beat me, so as not to let me tell you. Now, if you let him live, I'll kill myselfl Look, when he comes. don't let him speak, for, if I accuse him of this wicked suggestion. he will be ready to do it tomorrow againl" Then his elder brother became like a leopard, and he made his lance sharp, and he put it in his hand. Then his elder brother stood behind the door of his stable to kill his younger brother when he came back in the evening to put his cattle in the stable. Now when the sun was setting, he loaded himself with all plants of the fields, according to his custom of every day, and he came back. When the first cow came into the stable, she said to her herdsman: MHere's your elder brother waiting before you, carrying his lance to kill you! Run away from him!" Then he understood what his first cow had said. And another went in, and she said the same. So he looked under the door of his stable, and he saw the feet of his elder brother. as he was waiting behind the door, with his lance in his hand. So he laid his load on the ground, and he started to run away and escape. And his elder brother went after him, carrying his lance. Then his younger brother prayed to the Re-Har-akhti (the sun disc). saying: "0 my good lord, thou art he who judges the wicked from the just!" Thereupon the Re heard all his pleas, and the Re made a great body of water appear between him and his elder brother, and it was full of crocodiles. So one of them came to be on one Texts xxxi

side and the other on the other. And his elder brotherstruck his hand twice because of his not killing him.Then his younger brother called to him from the otherside, saying: "Wait here until dawn. When the sun discrises. I shall be judged with you in his presence. and hewill turn the wicked over to the just. for I won't be withyou ever again; I won't be in a place where you are-Ishall go to the Valley of the Cedar!" Now when it was dawn and a second day had come,the Re-Har-akhti arose, and one of them saw the other.Then the lad argued with his elder brother, saying: "Whatdo you mean by coming after me to kill me falsely. whenyou wouldn't listen to what I had to say? Now I am stillyour younger brother, and you are like a father to me,and your wife is like a mother to mel Isn't it so? When Iwas sent to fetch us some seed, your wife said to me:'Come, let's spend an hour sleeping together!' But, look,it is twisted for you into something else!" Then he let himknow all that had happened to him and his wife. Then heswore to the Re-Har-akhti, saying "As for your killing mefalsely, you carried your lance on the word of a filthywhore!" And he took a reed-knife, and he cut off hisphallus, and he threw it into the water. And the shadswallowed it. And he was faint and became weak. Andhis elder brother's heart was very. very sad, and he stoodweeping aloud for him. He could not cross over to wherehis younger brother was because of the crocodiles.... Then the younger brother went off to the Valley of theCedar, and his elder brother went off to his house, withhis hand laid upon his head, and he was smeared withdust. So he reached his house, and he killed his wife, andhe threw her out to the dogs. And he sat in mourning forhis younger brother.... On the continuation of the story the younger brother,Bata, undergoes a series of magical transformations afterdeath. Eventually he is elevated to the ranks of the God-Kings.)

The Diad, Book VI, 155-205

To Bellerophontes the gods granted beauty and

desirable manhood: but Proitos in anger devised evilxxxii Texts

things against him, and drove him out of his own

domain, since he was far greater, from the Argive country Zeus had broken to the sway of his sceptre. Beautiful Anteia the wife of Proitos was stricken with passion to lie in love with him, and yet she could not beguile valiant Bellerophontes, whose will was virtuous. So she went to Proitos the king and uttered her falsehood: "Would you be killed, o Proitos? Then murder Bellerophontes who tried to lie with me in love, though I was unwilling." So she spoke, and anger took hold of the king at her story. He shrank from killing him, since his heart was awed by such action, but sent him away to Lykia, and handed him murderous symbols, which he inscrtbed in a folding tablet, enough to destroy life, and told him to show it to his wife's father, that he might perish. Bellerophontes went to Lykia in the blameless convoy of the gods; when he came to the running stream of Xanthos, and Lykia, the lord of wide Lykia tendered him full-hearted honour. Nine days he entertained them with sacrifice of nine oxen, but afterwards when the rose fmgers of the tenth dawn showed, then he began to question him, and asked to be showed the symbols, whatever he might be carrying from his son-in-law, Proitos. Then after he had been given his son-in-law's wicked symbols f.trst he sent him away with orders to kill the Chimaira none might approach; a thing of immortal make, not human, lion- fronted and snake behind, a goat in the middle, and snorting out the breath of the terrible flame of blight fire. He killed the Chimaira, obeying the portents of the im- mortals. Next after this he fought against the glorious Solymoi, and this he thought was the strongest battle with men that he entered; but third he slaughtered the Amazons, who fight men in battle. Now as he came back the king spun another entangling treachery; for choosing the bravest men in wide Lykia he laid a trap, but these men never came home thereafter since all of them were killed by blameless Bellerophontes. Then when the king knew him for the powerful stock of the god, he detained him there, and offered him the hand of his daughter, and gave him half of all the kingly privilege. Thereto the men of Lykia cut out a piece of land. surpassing all others, fme ploughland and orchard for him to administer. His Texts xxxili

bride bore three children to valiant Bellerophontes,

Isandros and Hippolochos and Laodameia. Laodameialay in love beside Zeus of the counsels and bore him god-like Sarpedon of the brazen helmet. But after Bellero-phontes was hated by all the immortals, he wanderedalone about the plain of Aleios, eating his heart out,skulking aside from the trodden track of humanity. Asfor Isandros his son, Ares the insatiate of fighting killedhim in close battle against the glorious Solymoi, whileArtemis of the golden reins killed the daughter in anger.The Pharaoh's Dream 1

Tile Centrality and Significance of

the Joseph Narratives

So perfect a story as the Romance of Joseph, dating

moreover from hoary antiquity, can, strictly speaking, be neither history nor fiction. Like most of the ever- enchanting tales of the past, it is likely to be the product of long evolution. This may be said without eliminating the hand of dramatic genius, which makes itself felt in style and development. 1 -W. F. Albright (1918)

The Nature of the Biblical Narratives

The Joseph narratives (Genesis 37-50) are the Hebrew Bible's

longest continuous text devoted to one person. Though their styleis elliptical, their length is considerable, thirteen chapters with atotal of 391 verses. 2 While the narratives in which Moses appearsare more extensive, occupying much of the subsequent books ofthe Pentateuch, they incorporate within them the history and lawof the developing Hebrew nation. In those narratives, it is notalways Moses who dominates the story. In contrast, throughoutthe last quarter of Genesis we never lose sight of Joseph as thecentral figure in the text. It is in this spirit that Genesis Rabbah,the sixth century C.E. compilation of Jewish legends, interpretsthe opening of the story in Genesis 37:2, "Such then is the line ofJacob, Joseph" as follows: "the following events transpired onlyon Joseph's merit." For the Rabbinic exegetes, this verse opens anew epoch in Hebrew history, the epoch of Joseph.32 The Wiles ojWomen/Th.e Wiles of Men

Within the wider Joseph narratives, one section, Genesis

39-41, demonstrates an independent, internal unity. Thissection tells of the failed attempt by Potiphar's wife to seduceJoseph, his subsequent imprisonment, his success as inter-preter of dreams, and his rise to power as administrator ofEgypt. In this study in comparative folklore our focus will be onGenesis 39, the tale of Joseph and Potiphar's Wife, but we willoften widen the focus to include Genesis 39"-41, and from thesechapters expand the discussion to the Joseph narratives as awhole. These narratives tell the story of Joseph and hisbrothers from the time that Joseph was seventeen until hisdemise at the age of llO. At the point where Potiphar's wifeenters the story he no longer has contact with his brothers.Acting out of jealousy and resentment, they have sold Josephinto slavery. Joseph's adventures and misadventures in Egypt,which culminate in his rise to stewardship over the countryand its food supply, will bring his brothers to him. Their tribu-lations in Egypt, told in Genesis 42-45, culminate in Joseph'sreunion with his father Jacob and the settlement of all ofJacob's family in the Land of Goshen (46--48). Jacob's deathbedblessings to his children and grandchildren signal the closureof the Patriarchal period. Genesis ends with Jacob's burial inCanaan and Joseph's death and burial in Egypt (49-50). Nineteenth and early twentieth centwy Biblical scholarshipfocused on the source analysis of these narratives; contem-porary scholarship has paid more attention to the literary andfolkloric aspects of the tale. In 1970, Donald Redford offered asynthesis of earlier critical opinion concerning the narratives:

All commentators, no matter how far they diverge on

the subject of its origins. are unanimous in their judg- ment that the Joseph story is a masterpiece of story- telling, perhaps unequalled in Biblical literature.

In the twenty-five years since this was written. interest in the

application of literary theory to Biblical texts, and the parallelrefmement of narratology, has focused further attention on theJoseph Story. Modern Biblical and literary critics were not thefirst readers to comment on the unique qualities of the Josephnarratives. For the elaboration and embellishment that the taleelicited. both in Jewish and non-Jewish works, are but earlierforms of testimony to the story's unity and uniqueness: The Centrality and Significance of the Joseph Narratives 3

One need only investigate the extent to which the

Joseph stoxy itself (and not simply the motifs on which it draws) occurs in Midrash and paraphrase in the later literature of the East to learn that it rapidly became one of the most popular of all Biblical tales. 5 Also adding to the tale's appeal was its lack of didactic ormoralizing expression. Although we are reminded that there is adivine plan behind the unfolding events (Genesis 45:5-8) thestoxy can be read and enjoyed without paying full attention tothis theological element: Most striking and, in fact unique, is the secularistic complexion of the narrative. There are no miraculous or supernatural elements; no divine revelations are experi- enced by Joseph, who also had no associations with altars or cultic sites.6This "secularistic complexion" provides a sharp contrast to thetales of Jacob, and makes the Joseph stoxy eligible for culturalborrowing on a grand scale. The universal aspects of the tale-afather's love for the son of his late beloved wife, his brothers'jealousy, his descent into slavexy and triumph over it and, ofcourse, the temptation offered by the master's wife-had broadappeal. Cultures that did not share the theology and histoxy ofAncient Israel could share in the richness inherent in thesestories. Some contend that this lack of association between Josephand cultic practices was later compensated for by the venerationof Joseph's bones and tomb, and that in this veneration we mayfind assimilated elements of the cult of the dead. I will examinethis theoxy at the end of this study. For our present purposes, itshould be emphasized that the Joseph narratives are remarkablyfree of both direct theological statement, and the expression oftheological truths in ritual acts. It is this non-theological bent,combined with the timelessness of the stoxy. that ties it to anal-ogous literaxy forms in Middle Egyptian literature. Stories like'The Tale of Two Brothers," 'The Shipwrecked Sailor" and the"Romance of Sinuhe." stories with affinities to the Joseph narra-tives, "are literature composed for enjoyment, without any reli-gious or political motive. Magical and religious compositions suchas the Book of the Dead were for the grim business of securingsalvation. "74 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles ofMen

Estimates of the tale's high literary quality, and evaluations

of its popularity, are directly related to the reader's recognitionof the unity of the Joseph narratives: for the long section ofGenesis that is devoted to Joseph's adventures struck many anobserver as a unified tale. 'They are not a collection of isolatedand fragmentary incidents. "8 As a unified tale, the Joseph narratives thus pose a method-ological problem to proponents of the Documentary Hypothesis,the nineteenth centmy theory that posits four textual sources (J,E, P, D) for the later "redacted" text of the Hebrew Bible. E. ASpeiser, in his comments on Genesis 38 praises the "sustaineddramatic effort of the narrative, unsurpassed in the whole Penta-teuch. "9 He then proceeds to qualify this statement by assigningvarious strands of the narrative to different authors.

An achievement of such literary excellence should be,

one would naturally expect, the work of a single author. Yet such is defmltely not the case. While P's part in the story of Joseph is secondary and marginal, J and E are prominently represented throughout, each in his own distinctive way. The casual reader is hardly aware that he has a composite story before him; and even the trained analyst is sometimes baffled when it comes to separating the parallel accounts. '0

In this statement, Speiser is echoing the classical analysis

advanced by proponents of the Documentary Hypothesis. Thisview is exemplified in the remarks of G. Von Rad in Genesis: ACommentary:

The story of Joseph... apart from unimportant sec-

tions from the Priestly source, is an artful composition from the representations of the sources J and E. Appar- ently, both documents contained a story of Joseph. The redactor combined them with each other in such a way that he inserted extensive sections of the Elohistic parallel version into the Yahwistic story of Joseph and thus created an even richer narrative. In any case, the gain from this combination of sources is incomparably greater than the loss.'' The Centrality and Significance of the Joseph Narratives 5

In his more technical "notes" to Chapter 38, Speiser endorses

the "documentary" view of the story and cites one element in it,the references to both Ishmaelites and Midianites as the pur-chasers of Joseph (Chapter 37, verses 25-28). as the proof textfor the validity of the Documentary Hypothesis:

Tilis single verse alone provides a good basis for a

constructive documentary analysis of the Pentateuch; it goes a long way, moreover, to demonstrate that E was not just a supplement to J, but an independent and often conflicting source. 12

That this view has exerted great influence on contemporary

Biblical scholarship is clear from the statement of. 0. S. Winter-mute in The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible.

Genesis 37 is one of the most convincing illustra-

tions of the documentary hypothesis. One ought to be warned, however, of the constant need for reappraisal of this kind of approach. An excellent example of its short- comings is the case of the double allusion to Midianites and Ishmaelites which may have its origin in poetic parallelism. 13

In the last two decades, this emphasis on the analysis of the

sources of the story has shifted. A 1992 review of the literaturenoted that, "recent examination of the story softens the argu-ment for two sources by suggesting that one author can userepetition as a narrative technique for emphasis, perhapssimply for variety." 14 With this shift from a "higher criticism"model to a literary criticism mode, and with the application ofthis model to Genesis, scholars have highlighted the redactionalunity of the text. For these scholars, structural and linguisticanalysis of Genesis reveals that the strong editorial hand atwork in the book's fmal redaction was striving for artistic andthematic unity. As Gary Rendsburg noted in The Redaction ofGenesis, "The Joseph story is, by all accounts, the most unifiedstory in Genesis, perhaps in the entire Pentateuch, and indeedin the whole Hebrew Bible. "15 Whatever an individual scholar's view of the sources of thenarrative, the pivotal role of the Joseph story in the unfolding6 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles ofMen

history of Israel is recognized by both the early Rabbinic texts

and the modern critics:

Joseph is the link between Canaan and Egypt,

responsible in some manner for the descent into Egypt. .. When we reflect upon the fact that Genesis ends with the death of Joseph, and that Exodus enters with the reminder that it was the small Jacob clan of "seventy souls ... that entered Egypt.. .Joseph being already in Egypt" (Exodus 1:1, 5), we begin to see Joseph as the bridge between the Patriarchs and Moses. 16

Genesis Rabbah highlights this centrality and sees Joseph's

merit as pivotal in Hebrew history. and as pitotal in accountingfor miraculous events in that history:

These events waited until Joseph was born: as it is

written (Genesis 30:25). "After Rachel had borne Joseph... " "Jacob said unto Laban, Give me leave to go to my own homeland." Who brought them down into Egypt? -Joseph: and who provided for them:-Joseph. The sea was divided for Joseph's sake alone, as it is written (Psalms 77:17), 'lhe waters saw you, 0 God, the very deep quaked as well"-which is preceded by "By your arm you redeemed your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph." Rabbi Judan son of Rabbi Simon said, "The Jordan too was divided for Joseph's sake alone."17

From the perspective of this Midrash, it is as if history was

held in abeyance, awaiting Joseph's appearance. And it is notonly human history that this could be said of, but also the inter-vention of God in the natural order. Both the splitting of the RedSea and the dividing of the Jordan River are here attributed toJoseph's merit. Elsewhere in Jewish legend Joseph is Unked toeach of these miracles on an individual basis. It is through thepower of Joseph's coffm that the miracle is effected at the RedSea. Joshua's own miracle at the Jordan is also tied to the meritof his ancestor Joseph. 18 In later Midrashim, two aspects of theJoseph legend loom large: his beauty and wisdom, and theseattributes assure his place in the development of a Joseph motifin Jewish popular religion and magic. Following our survey of The Centrality and Significance of the Joseph Narratives 7

Joseph in Genesis and Jewish Biblical elaboration we will move

to the depiction of Joseph in the Qur'an, and in the commen-taries and histories later woven around the Qur'an's story ofYt1suf. In these distinct tellings of the tale, some of the samethemes and depictions seem to repeat themselves. But often theQur'an, and its commentators, assert the uniqueness of theirinterpretations by offering us a markedly different story. TheYt1suf of the Qur'an is not identical with the Joseph of Hebrewscripture. The hero's names are. of course, cognate Arabic andHebrew words. and the broad outlines of the Biblical andQur'fulic stories are similar. How each story diverges from theother will be the subject of much of our inquiry. Joseph's beauty and wisdom, highlighted in all of our texts,are both an asset and a liability to our hero. As we read bothJewish and Islamic descriptions of Rachel's son it will becomeapparent that both his triumphs and failures are linked to theseattributes. He is a hero who is constantly in and out of trouble.Though scripture and legend remind us that God's hand directsthe course of his life, the purely human drama of the beautifulyoung seiVant in a foreign land keeps the reader fully engagedand eagerly awaiting the outcome of his tale.

The Narrative in the Qur'an and Islamic Legend

The twelfth sura of the Qur'an is unique. It is the only

one of the lengthy chapters which develops a single theme. The unity of the theme's treatment indicates, moreover, that, unlike the other chapters of any length, this one is not, for the most part, a composite. It is, therefore, the Qur'an's longest continuous narrative. 19

In these remarks by a contemporary student of Islam we find

striking similarities to modern critical evaluations of Genesis 37-50. As we have seen earlier. those chapters of Genesis constitutethe Bible's longest narrative devoted to one figure. Thus both thelength and unity of the two Joseph stories-the Biblical and theQur'fulic-are unusual within their respective scriptural canons.The question of the relationship between the two treatments is acomplex and much-debated one, and it will be dealt with in aseparate discussion. What is of interest to us here is the functionof Stira 12 within the Qur'an.8 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

The uniqueness of this Sfua of the Qur'an is highlighted by

its name, Slirat Yusuf (the chapter on Joseph). Most often aSfua is named after a key word in its opening verses. This Slirais devoted to only one personage, and it is one of the few Slirasnamed after an individual or tribe. Other Slira names that arenamed after individuals and reflect "Biblicist" traditions areYlinus (Jonah). Ibrahim (Abraham). and Nlih (Noah). As the nature of Qur'cinic narrative is not chronological, wecannot assign Slira 12 the pivotal historical position that theJoseph narratives command in the Bible. In the Bible, Joseph'sstory has narrative theological and historical import. Within itslayers of law, myth. and poetry. the Bible offers a chronology ofhuman events. Often this chronology is linked to genealogies orto annals, both of which were features of Ancient Near Easternhistoriography. 20 The Qur'an does not attempt to duplicate orimprove upon these earlier histories; rather, it seems to assumea prior knowledge of the basics of sacred history. It also extendsits own presentation of ancient history to the immediate pre-Islamic and early Islamic periods. But imparting this knowledge,and placing events within the context of history, is not theQur'an's prime concern. It comes rather as an "Arabic Qur'an"and a "warning." As M.G. S. Hodgson noted:

Because of its intimate interaction with the day-to-

day destinies of the community, the Qur'an cannot be read as a discursive book. for abstract information or even, in the fust instance for inspiration. The sequence of its bits and pieces is notoriously often lacking in logical order or development. Even the stories it recounts come not as consecutive narratives but rather in the form of reminders of episodes which are often presumed to be known to the audience-reminders which point u p the implications of the episode for faith with little concern otherwise for continuity-as if he who did not know the story should ask someone to tell it to him before approaching the Qur'an's commentary on it.21

In his traditional translation and commentary on Stlrat

Ytlsuf, Abdullah Ylisuf Ali, a modern Muslim commentator onthe Qur'an, echoes Hodgson's remarks. In his introductory The Centrality and Significance of the Joseph Narratives 9

remarks to the SUra. he notes: "For the parable all that is neces-sary to know about Joseph is that he was one of the chosen onesof God. For the story it is necessary to set down a few moredetails. His father was Jacob ... "22 Both Hodgson from a secularviewpoint. and YU.suf Ali from the viewpoint of a believer, affirmthat the SUra. presupposes a knowledge of pre-existing materials,matertals which it then uses to make its own didactic points. Itmakes these points in a number of ways: they are stated directlyor implied by the speech or action of one of the protagonists. Asa "teaching narrative" SUra.t YU.suf has a unique function in theQur'an:

Even when the narrative predominates, the story is

hardly ever told in a straightforward manner, but tends to fall into a series of short word-pictures; the action advances incident by incident discontinuously, and the intervening links are left to the imagination of the hearers .. .In the relatively few narrative passages in the Qur'an, the homiletic element is again apt to intrude. The longest narrative is the story of Joseph in Sfua 12, and there every now and then the account of events is interrupted by a parenthesis to make clear the purpose of God in what happened. 23

This purposefulness is central to an understanding of the

When one looks at the place of each story within its

entire work, the differences...are striking. Joseph is the subject of one of many teaching stories, albeit one of the longest, most detailed, and most colorful. Without it, however, the Qur'an would still make sense. And without the Qur'an, the Sfua of Joseph could still be read on its own, decontextualized as it is. For the Bible, however, the story of Joseph is essential .. .In the Bible, the telling of the Joseph story is an indispensable step in the unfolding of God's divine plan and manipulation of history to ensure the future of the Hebrews. Consequently, the figure of God seems somewhat more distant in the Biblical story, less concentrated on a relationship with Joseph and more10 The Wiles ofWomen/The Wiles ofMen

involved with the lives of all the many characters, whereas

in the Qur'an, God interferes with and gUides His mes- senger constantly, the other characters remaining more shadowy and less clearly defmed. 24

According to the Qur'aruc commentaries, this sense of divine

guidance is one of the reasons that Sfuat Yusuf is consideredthe best of all tales. For the sfua identifies itself as aJ:tsan al-qQ$(1$ (12:3), "the best of all tales." That is to say that, of allstories told, that of Yusuf is the best. This interpretation isexpanded upon by the eleventh century commentator al-Tha'labl:

It is the most beautiful because of the lessons con-

cealed in it, on account of Yusufs generosity and its wealth of matter-in which prophets, angels, devils, jinn, men, animals, birds, rulers, and subjects play a part.25

While not questioning the Sura's qualities or popularity,

some of the classical commentaries are more circumspect intheir interpretation of the phrase al;lsan al-qQ$CI$. They see it asreferring to the manner in which the story is told, and notnecessarily to its content:

Al;lsan al-qQ$(1$... "with the best explanation." This

rendering is very close to the interpretation given by Zamakhshart: "We set forth this Qur'an unto thee in the best way in which it could be set forth." According to Razi, it may be safely assumed that the acljective "best" refers not to the contents of "that which is setforth"-i.e., the particular story narrated in this swah-but rather to the manner in which the Qur'an (or this particular swah) is set forth. 26

For one contemporary Western critic, Yllsufs lengthy and

fmely drawn portrayal in the Qur'an serves as a teaching par-able with which MuQ:unmad illustrates his triumph over oppo-sition to his mission and message. Uke Joseph:

MuQ:unmad has to leave his home to fulfill his des-

tiny elsewhere. The situations of revelation [asbdb al- n.uzUl], those traditions that identify the time and place The Centrality and Significance of the Joseph Narratives 11

of each Qur'anic revelation. place Slirat Yusuf in the

Meccan period. before [the Battle of) 'Aqaba. and accord- ing to tradition it was recited to the frrst converts from Medina. 27

In this reading, Mul)ammad, in the process of deciding upon

the future of his mission, is inspired by the figure of Joseph toleave Mecca and establish his base in Medina. S. M. Stern pointsout that the phrase used by the Egyptian King's advisors to des-cribe his dreams (Qur'an 12:44), adghtithu aJ:idmin (a hodge-podge of nightmares). appears in one other verse of the Qur'an:

It is used by Mul)ammad's opponents to denigrate

hi~ revelations (Sura 21:5). Just as the Egyptian coun- cil's failure to recognize a divine message led to their being replaced in power, so would MuJ::wnmad overcome the blind and ignorant men ofMecca.28

Whatever interpretation may be given to a]:lsan al-QQ.$(1$, and

whatever importance is assigned to the didactic import of thetale, the Joseph story's popularity in the Islamic world seemedassured. Throughout the Middle Ages the story appeared inArabic, Turkish, and Persian, and it became a mainstay of theanthologies of Tales of the Prophets-the Qi$Q.$ al-anbiyci.'literature. As M. J. Kister noted "the transmitters of these talesaimed at widening the scope of these Qur'aruc stories; theyavailed themselves of the lore contained in local traditionscurrent in the Arab peninsula in the period of the Jahiliya. in theChristian narrative concerning the life of Jesus, the Apostles, themartyrs, and the monks, in Jewish Biblical legends, and in theutterances of sages and ascetics."29 In the collections of this genre, Y11suf was a great favorite.'The Muslim community was eager to learn of the biographies ofthe prophets of the past because Mul;lammad was identified incertain passages of the Qur'an with their mission and vocation.and especially with the sufferings and persecution which theyhad undergone."30 We have cited al-Tha'labi's excursus on thereasons for the superiority of Joseph's story. The story alsoappears in folk poetry:

Side by side with the literary manifestations of the

genre, there was a long tradition of oral recitations on12 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

these themes by professional qussas, which range along

with popular epics like the sirat :t\ntar, etc. all of these have a "HomericM quality, in that there was a rough approximation to an "established" text, no one author can be pinned down; they are the end product of innumerable recitations over the centuries each of which may have contributed something to them. 31

A medieval Arabic manuscript, the Leeds ms. 347 (ca.

thirteenth-fourteenth centuries). retells the YU.suf story using thetext of Sfua.t YU.suf as its point of departure. Its editors note that:

The general arrangement of the story narrated in the

poem is that of the Qur'aruc story. At some points the Qur'anic text is quoted directly, while many other phrases used by the poet are adaptations of Qur'anic phraseology ... In all, one sixth of the 469 surviving verses of this poem contain direct quotations or reminis- cences of the text ofSili'a 12.32

On linguistic evidence, the editors of this text have taken the

manuscript to be of Egyptian provenance. They note the ob-vious pleasure the poet takes in allusions to the "blessed Nile."33In the poem, Joseph is fetched from his cell by the butler whosedream Joseph had interpreted years before. The butler. sent bythe King, knocks on Joseph's door:

When he knocked upon his door he came with haste.

and a smile appeared on his lips when he saw him. Joseph said to him: "Hearty welcome to one who has come to ask me about the seven fat kine... M

Here Joseph knows the king's dream even before it is told to

him. He can provide the king with both the dream and its inter-pretation-a true sign of divine inspiration. This embellishes theQur'aruc account (12:47) in which Joseph is first told the dreamand then asked to interpret it. And this, in turn, echoes theBiblical account in Genesis 41: 17. This ability of Joseph'shearkens back to a Biblical and other Ancient Near Eastern talesin which the interpreter knows the dream before it is told to him.In the Book of Daniel. Nebuchadnezzer insists that his wise men The Centrality and Significance of the Joseph Narratives 13

and "Chaldeans" be summoned to "tell him" his dreams. They

ask that the king relate the dreams that he wishes them to inter-pret. But Nebuchadnez.zer is adamant. he wants them to tell himthe dream. Finally. in frustration. the Chaldeans answered theking:

There is not a man on earth who can meet the King's

demand; for no great and powerful King has asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or Chaldean. The thing that the King asks is difficult, and none can show it to the King except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh. (Daniel 2: 10-12)

Daniel is then granted this gift from God in a vision and he is

able to tell the king what his dream was34 (2:31). When, in our fourteenth centwy Arabic poem. Joseph inter-prets the dream, he elaborates on the seven years of plentysymbolized by the seven fat cows. The Egyptian setting isauthentic and appropriate:

The Nile shall be in full flood from bank to bank and

the eyes of the clouds shall pour forth an abundance of rain. The tillers of the land shall be assured of water in their plough-land: there shall be no part of it which the blessed Nile does not cover and inundate. They shall strive to sow it all and they shall not leave a span of earth fallow. They shall build a spacious building for storage in every region with sturdy walls. 35

There are echoes of two Ancient Near Eastern themes in this

late medieval reworking of Joseph's story: the dependablefecundity of the Nile and the divinely inspired nature of dream-interpretation. These themes draw on the two distinct butlinked civilizations that provide the background of the BiblicalJoseph story. Egypt and Mesopotamia. The predictable inun-dation of the Nile was a basis of early Egyptian civilization. andthe powers of dreams was long recognized in the Mesopotamiancultures. Much of this century's academic study of Genesis tiesJoseph to its Egyptian setting. But it should not be overlookedthat Joseph's origins were in Mesopotamia, the Biblical AramNaharaim; he was the last of Jacob's children to be born in14 The Wiles of Women/The Wiles of Men

Laban's household in Haran. Genesis 30:25 makes this asso-

ciation explicit; it ties together the birth of Rachel's frrst son withthe flight from Haran:

When Rachel had given birth to Joseph, Jacob said to

Laban, "Let me go. for I wish to return to my own home and country."

Joseph thus bridges the Mesopotamian and Egyptian experiences

of the Patriarchs. and, by extension. of the children of Israel. He isborn in Aram Naharaim, his youth is spent in Canaan, but hegrows to manhood and responsibility in Egypt. Long after hisdeath, when the children of Israel return to Canaan, they returnhis bones to Canaan, land of his fathers. Symbolically, Joseph'sremains link Mesopotamia, Canaan, and Egypt. Throughout our discussions of the Joseph story in its elab-orated form we will see that this sequence of cultural settings-Mesopotamia, Canaan, and Egypt, and the return to Canaan-was used to great effect by post-Biblical commentators, folkloreanthologists. and. in the modern period, by novelists.

The Joseph Story in Polemical Lit erature

Even at this early point in our survey of the literature we

can see that the Joseph narratives were the locus of elaborationand the subject of extensive commentary. A further indication ofthe story's centrality and popularity is the frequency with whichit is cited in religious polemics. These include both Jewish-Islamic polemics and Islamic sectarian polemics.A. In the Jewish-Islamic Polemic As Joseph/YU.suf is a central figure in the two traditions, thetwo distinct portrayals of him are not only of interest to themodern student of narrative. they were understood by advo-cates of each tradition to be of theological import as well. Thenature of the Jewish-Islamic polemic is markedly different fromthat of the Jewish-Christian polemic. The difference is deter-mined by Judaism's two "daughter religions'" relationship to thetext of the Hebrew Bible:

For the Christian churches ... the validity. sanctity,

and authenticity of the Hebrew scriptures were beyond The Centrality and Significance of the Joseph Narratives 15

challenge. The Christian churches recognized the divine

origin of these scriptures in their entirety and con- sidered them an integral part of the Bible ... Radically different is the attitude of Islam toward the Hebrew scriptures: these do not form an integral part of Islam's holy writings. Islam ascribes holiness and authority solely to the Qur'an. "36

While Jews and Christians could debate the meaning of specific

words and phrases in the Hebrew Bible, such an exercise wouldbe meaningless in the Jewish-Islamic debate, for Muslims donot consider the text of the Torah sacred. When the tawrat(Torah) is cited in the disputations between Mul;runmad and theJews of his time, its antiquity is recognized-but Mul)ammadaccuses the Jews of having distorted it. These accusations areformulated in Islam as the doctrine of TaJ:rif, a doctrine articu-lated four times in the Qur'an.

The Muslims found occasion to deal with this con-

cept in connection with those passages in the Qur'an where Mul)ammad accused the Jews of falsifying the books of revelation given them There is a distinct charge of having falsified the text in Slira 2:73. "Woe to them who write the scripture with their hands and say: this comes from Allah" and again in 2:91 'You make the scripture of Moses into leaves which you read out and suppress much of it;" which can only mean that in (Mul)ammad's) opinion they removed the passages attesting to the truth of his mission from the copies which they used at their disputations. 37

That the Jews will be punished for their rejection of Mul;runmad

is, according to 18-bart, implied in Slira 2:90--"And they wereladen with anger"-(this refers to) the Jews, for their alterationof the Torah before the advent of the Prophet.38 In the absence ofa common textual ground for disputation (for the Jews did notaccept the Qur'an, nor the Muslims accept the Torah), storiescommon to both the Qur'an and the Bible became the subject ofpolemic, and none assumed greater importance than that ofJoseph. As the most extensively treated tale in the Qur'an, and16 The Wiles of Women/The Wiles of Men

as one with a Biblical antecedent, the story of Joseph was a

locus of debate. The debate had two aspects: 1) The question ofwhat constitutes the complete story of Joseph and the relatedquestion of its significance in sacred history. 2) The fine detailsof the story. many of which are absent from either the Biblicalor Qur'fulic text. Both aspects are illustrated in these commentsof al-BayQa.wi, the thirteenth century giant of Qur'aruc exegesis,in his Tajsir. Commenting on the opening of the stlra, 'These are thesigns of the manifest book" (12: 1) al-Bayqawf offers analternative reading to the simple meaning of the text:

This is the stlrah which makes plain to the Jews

that which they asked .. .it is recorded that their learned men said to the chiefs of the polytheists, "Ask Mul:;am- mad why Jacob's family moved from Syria to Egypt, and about the story of Joseph," whereupon this stlrah was revealed. 39

This reading, which recognizes the pivotal position of the story

in Hebrew history (for in order for the Hebrews to be enslavedand liberated, Joseph must descend into Egypt and drawJacob's family to him), echoes the Rabbinic homily, cited at thebeginning of this chapter, which sees a new epic inauguratedwith Joseph's story. al-BayQa.wi's comment indicates that to theemerging Muslim community, the Mul:;ammad's superior knowl-edge of Biblical history was a sign of divine inspiration; Muslimexpectation was that this knowledge would win the Jews over tothe Muslim cause. For, in Mul)ammad's attempt to win theallegiance of the ahl al-kitab (the Peoples of the Book), he wasoperating at a distinct disadvantage. As M. G. S. Hodgson put it:

MuJ:;ammad...had always expected that monotheists,

whether Christians or Jews. ought to welcome his mes- sage and give him support in his work among the pagans. But...Mul)ammad's versions of Biblical, Talmudic, and apocryphal Christian stories were too patently incoherent, and sometimes garbled, to win the respect of those who already possessed the older sacred books. There was little to encourage them to hail Mul:;ammad as a prophet even to their pagan neighbors.40 The Centrality and Significance of the Joseph Narratives 17

Against this background, in which Christians and Jews ques-

tioned the validity of Qur'aruc narrative. while the early com-munity of Muslims affirmed it, it became all the more importantfor Mul_lammad to display knowledge of the "secret," unstateddetails of the Biblical tales. This factor informs Baigawi's com-ments on Joseph's dream in which the sun, the moon. andeleven stars bow down to him:

Jabir tells a story to the effect that a Jew came to the

Prophet and said, "Tell me MuJ:runmad, about the stars which Joseph saw," The Prophet was silent. then Gabriel descended and gave him this information, so he said, "These are the names of all of the eleven stars. Joseph saw these and the sun and moon descending from heaven and bowing down to him." And the Jew said, "Yes indeed, these are their names."4 '

In an another version of the story, (related by al-Tha'labi in

his Qi$as al-anbiya), the encounter between the Jew andMul:}.ammad had a more dramatic denouement. The angelGabriel tells MuJ:runmad the names of the stars, and MuJ:run-mad then sends for the Jew and asks him if he will convert toIslam if he reveals the stars' names to him. The Jew agrees andMu])ammad then reveals the secret names that Gabriel hadrevealed to him. 42 In this version, MuJ:runmad's knowledge of thesecret details so impresses the Jew that he converts to Islam.Also of significance in al-Tha'labi's retelling is Joseph's seemingbewilderment at his own dream. He turns to his father, whoassures him that this is a prophetic dream, "I see somethingscattered but God will gather it up." Here we are not in thecompany of the arrogant. preening Joseph of the Biblical story(and of some Midrashim), but in the presence of a youthbewildered by the divine call to greatness. He is not a victim ofhis own youthful arrogance, but, rather, a young man destinedto be a Nabi (a prophet). Indications of his future greatness (e.g.,his dreams) are not to be taken as indications of human strivingand weakness; rather they are "signs," presentments of thefulfillment of God's plan.43 The "superior" narrative qualities of Stirat Ytisuf, in com-parison with the parallel Joseph narratives in Genesis, areadvanced by Muslim polemicists as an argument for the superi-18 The Wiles of Women/The Wiles of Men

ority of Islamic revelation. Commenting on the Qur'fulic phrase,

"the best of all stories," Al-Tha'labi quotes a tradition in whichsome of the companions of Mul)ammad asked the sage Salmanal-Fartsi about the tawrat, the Torah of the Jews. "What," theyasked, "is the best thing in it?" This incident was followed by therevelation to Mul)ammad of Stlrat Yusuf. and that revelation,this tradition asserts, proves that the Qur'an is superior to thetawrat. 44 Al-Tha'labi also offers another isnad, or "chain of transmis-sion" for this tradition, one which links this saying directly to theProphet. As a companion of the Prophet, Salman's authority wasconsiderable, and the attribution of this statement to him lentauthoritative weight to this reading of Sura 12. This traditionamplifies the classical Qur'anic commentators on the verse,some of whom assert that "best of all stories" refers to both theform and content of the Surah. In Muslim historiography,Salman al-Fartsi, the frrst Persian convert to Islam, assumedlegendary status. "The figure of Salman has had an extra-ordinary development... the alleged site of his tomb very earlybecame a center of worship ...and the veneration accorded toSalman among the Sunnis is naturally exceeded among theShi'is."45 Two figures associated with the transmission of "'Israelite"legends to Islam (and by extension, with the Jewish-Islamicpolemic) are Ka'b al-al)bar (seventh Christian century) andWahb ibn Munabbih (eighth century). Ka'b al-ai:t>ar ("of theQa.verim," the Rabbinical scholars) was a Yemenite Jewishconvert to Islam. Said to have been a close associate of theCaliph Umar, he accompanied the Caliph on his march intoJerusalem. Ka'b (his Arabic name may be a form of Akiba orYakov) is often cited as a source for Jewish materials in Islamiclegends, and he is quoted widely in the commentaries on StlratYllsuf. Also of Yemenite Jewish origin was Wahb ibn Munabbih,who lived a generation after Ka'b. He too is credited as thesource of many Jewish (and Christian) stories which appearedin the Isrd'lli.ydt compendia, and like Ka'b, his authority isquestioned at times because of his association with the "peoplesof the book. "46B. In the Inter-Islamic Polemic Stlrat Yusuf, and parallel Jewish stories, served as prooftexts in the Jewish-Islamic polemic. In disputations within the The Centrality and Significance of the Joseph Narratives 19

Islamic community the debate centered on the text of the

Qur'an. Ibn I:Ja.zm, the eleventh century Andalusian polemicistand chronicler of Muslim sectarianism, described the beliefsand practices of the Kharijites, "that third party in Islam whichanathematized both the majority Sunnis and the Shl'i partisansof Ali."

There were, however, people who usurped the name

of Islam, though all the sects of Islam agree that they are not Muslims. Thus there were sections among the Kharijites who went to the extreme, maintaining that the Salat (prayer) was not more than one bow in the morning and one in the evening. Others permitted mar- riage with granddaughters and daughters of nephews. They also maintained that Sllrat YU.suf did not belong to the Qur'an. 47

Al-Shahrastani, the twelfth centwy scholar who was considered

the principal Muslim historian of religion, is more specific. Heidentifies the "extreme" sect as the Maimuniyya of the Khari-jites, and says that the reason they rejected Stkat YU.suf as partof the Qur'an was that they did not think that a love-storyshould be included in the Qur'an. The reference here is to thePotiphar's Wife theme, which, though it highlights Joseph'svirtue, seems to have been too erotically charged for the Maim-uniyya's sensibilities. Their rejection of Sllrat YU.suf is in keepingwith extreme Kharijite ideology which "demands purity ofconscience as an indispensable complement to bodily purity forthe validity of acts ofworship."48 Such an extreme position-rejection of an entire Sura fromthe corpus of the Qur'an-is rare. We do find instances of a"lost" verse, one not found in our texts of the Qur'an, beingascribed to Sllrat YU.suf. Abu Waq'id al-Laythi reports, "Wheninspiration came upon the Prophet, we would go to him and hewould instruct us in what had been revealed. I went to him onceand he said, 'God says, we sent wealth for the upkeep of prayerand alms-giving. Were ibn Adam ("a human being") to possess awadi, he would desire another like it, which, if he had, he woulddesire yet another. Nothing will fill the maw of ibn Adam butdust, but God relents to him who repents."' The verse was inSiirat YU.suf4920 The Wiles of Women/The Wiles ofMen

Perhaps the choice of Slirat Yusuf for the placement of this

"lost" verse is related to the centrality of the Potiphar's Wifemotif in that Sura. The futility of desire, and the impossibility offulfilling one's desires. are conveyed in the maxim that "Nothingwill fill the maw of ibn Adam but dust." Yusuf, by resistingtemptation and conquering desire, exemplifies this theme, andtherefore receives the rewards reserved for "him who repents." Despite the different interpretations of Joseph conveyed inlegends and polemics there is one area of agreement in the folk-lore of the confessional communities; they all attribute magicalpowers to both the living Joseph and to his earthly remains.

Joseph as Holy Man, Prophet, Magician

In Jewish tradition Joseph is not counted among the Avot.

the Patriarchs. As one of the twelve sons of Jacob he is of thechildren of Israel, and among them he serves as the link betweenthe Patriarchal Age and the Israelite sojourn in Egypt:

On the literary level the Bible depicts Joseph as the

heir and successor to the Patriarchs. He follows closely upon his fathers in carrying forth the ancestral heritage and in receiving. as did his fathers. the divine promise. (cf. Genesis 50:24}.50

When, during Israel's bondage in Egypt. they "were groaning

under their bondage and cried out." God who "remembered Hiscovenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, took notice of them"(Exodus 2:24). The narrative of their bondage begins with thenew king who "arose over Egypt. who did not know Joseph."Joseph is the historical link to the covenant; but he is not one towhom the covenantal promises are directly made. An early Midrash places Joseph in a quartet of men of greatwisdom, men whose wisdom is exceeded only by Solomon. Itcomments on I Kings 5: 11 "He [Solomon) was the wisest of allmen: wiser than Etan the Ezrahite. and Heman. Calcol, andDarda the sons of Mahol." These are names unknown elsewherein the Biblical narrative and therefore the impact of comparingSolomon to these men is somewhat muted. In order to solvethat problem this Midrash identifies these names with well-known Biblical figures. "Calcol." the provider. "is identified with The Centrality and Significance of the Joseph Narratives 21

Joseph. "51 Though excluded from the Patriarchal triad of

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Joseph is included in the list of thegreat wise men of Biblical history. He supplies both the Egyp-tians and the Israelites with grain and facilitates the settlementof Jacob's family in Egypt. In Islam, Y11suf also has an exalted position, one in whichhe is both the protagonist of the most colorful and elaborate ofall suras, and a nab~a prophet. In this latter role he is por-trayed in the tradition as a precursor of MuJ::runmad. Joseph'ssuccess in Egypt serves as a model for MuJ::mnmad endeavors inMedina; inspiring him to bring his monotheistic message to thepagan Arabs as Joseph did to the idolatrous Egyptians.52 Exalted as Joseph's position is in both the Jewish and Mus-lim traditions, it should be emphasized that in both traditions heis seen as secondary to Moses. According to S.D. Goitein:

Moses (Milsa) is the predominant figure in the Qur'an.

I would not like to lay too much stress on the quantitative aspect, although it is impressive enough; compared to Jesus, who is mentioned only four times in the Qur'an during the Meccan, that is, formative period of Mui:run- mad's career, Moses' name occurs there over a hundred times. Much more important is the fact that the stories about Moses are not confined to certain chapters, but pervade the whole Qur'an and the idea of Moses, the Prophet with a Book, possessed MuJ::mnmad to such an extent that he immediately proceeded to produce a divine book of his own.53

In the Jewish tradition Moses' exalted status as prophet and

lawgiver strengthened the tendency in both Bible and legend tode-mythologize him. In order to prevent his grave from becominga shrine, its site remains unknown. Later in Biblical history thebronze serpent with which Moses stopped the plague (Numbers21 :9) is destroyed by Hezekiah so as to prevent it from becomingan object of further veneration. "He also broke into pieces thebronze serpent which Moses had made, for until that time theIsraelites has been offering sacrifices to it; it was called Nehush-tan." (2 Kings: 18:4)." ln the development of Moses as a literaryfigure, the functions of lawgiver and leader overshadow, andeventually exclude, the earlier roles of seer and magician.22 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

Joseph, in contrast, is a figure ripe for mythologizing-he is

neither patriarch nor national leader, and there is no danger inenriching his portrait with magical detail. With so much atten-tion focused on Joseph by both scripture and its aggadaicelaboration, it was inevitable that he would become a popularfigure in folk religion and that magical powers would be attri-buted to him. For Jews, Christians, and Muslims, the AncientEgyptians were the magicians, par excellence, and therefore theEgyptian background of the narratives made the magical aspecteven more appropriate to Joseph. While I have been making the case that Moses is a moreexalted and central figure than Joseph in both Judaism andIslam, one set of Muslim tales indicates that there may havebeen "competition" between the two prophets, and that this com-petition led to conflation of Joseph and Moses in the imaginationof some storytellers. Al-Kisa'I, the thirteenth century Muslimanthologist whose identity is something of a mystery, says on theauthority of Ka'b al AlJbar and Wahb ibn Munabbih, that Joseph'sson Manasseh was "blessed with a child whom he called Moses,and this was before the time of Moses son of Amram." Like thelater Biblical Moses, this Moses was also a spokesman for Godand he was enjoined to remind his people of their covenant withGod. Al-Kisa'i's version closes with the affirmation that "Mosesson of Manasseh recited all of that to the children of Israel, andthey responded to him. He remained among them a long timebefore he died. "54 In some Islamic sources this Moses is iden-tified with the mystical figure mentioned in the Qur'an (Sura18). Yet a third Moses, "Moses the Samaritan" appears in thechronologies of Muslim historians. In Ibn Is.Qaq's narrative, when the "primary" Moses, theleader of the Banu Isra'Il (the Children of Israel), was told thathis time to die had come, he pleaded for his life. For he "hateddeath and found it distressing." The way in which he wasconvinced to embrace death was this:

On the day that he was to die he saw a troop of angels

digging a grave "more beautiful, green, splendid, and opulent than he had ever seen." When he asked the angels whose grave it was they replied "that it was for a servant of God who would have an eternal dwelling in heaven." The angels said to him, "Oh friend of God, do you wish to have this?" He said, "I would." They said, The Centrality and Significance of the Joseph Narratives 23

"Enter, lie down in it, and face your Lord. Then breathe easier than you have ever breathed." So he went down and lay down in it and faced his Lord and expired. God took his spirit, and the angels raised their voices over him."55

The classical association of magic and death is also manifest

in the Joseph tales. In these stories, in contrast to Moses' story,the hero's remains, tomb, and possessions. became objects ofveneration. In weaving the story of his life, Jewish legendsportray Joseph as a living, practicing magician, functioning andexcelling in the "land of magic." In death, his power is transferredto his remains and effects. The Talmud states: Ten portions ofmagic descended to earth, nine were taken by the Egyptians. 56This is a reflex of the Bible's focus on and condemnation ofmagic, particularly the magic of Egypt (Exodus 7:11, 7:22, 8:14}.Moses and Aaron challenge the Egyptians' magical power, andbest the Egyptians in a sphere in which that nation is known toexcel. For post-Biblical Jewish writers, magic and Egypt wouldremain forever intertwined. In keeping with the spirit of thisassociation, Genesis Rabbah has Joseph encounter these "nineportions of magic" as soon as he is brought down into Egypt:

"And his master saw that the Lord was with him" (Genesis 39:3}, Rabbi Huna interpreted in Rabbi Aha's name: Joseph whispered God's name whenever he came in and whenever he went out. . .If his master bid him "Mix me a drink, and make it hot," lo, it was hot; Mix it lukewarm, it was lukewarm. What means this, Joseph!, exclaimed he; would you bring straw to Afrayim, or pitchers to Kefar Hananiah, or fleeces to Damascus, or witchcraft to Egypt-witchcraft to a place of witchcraft?

Joseph's Egyptian master suspects him of lprshin (black magic}:

... How long did he suspect him of witchcraft? ...

Until he saw the Shekhinah standing over him. Hence it says: "And his master saw that the Lord was with him... and Joseph found favor in his sight. "57

The use of the term lprshin (magic), is significant. It specifically

refers to magical praxis, and in that sense it frequently appears24 The Wiles ofWomen/The Wiles of Men

in the magic bowl inscriptions, where praxis with evil intent is

lprshin bishin (black magic). The Egyptians in this legend aremasters of every praxis, both "black" and "white." Potiphar, inthis legend, is able to distinguish between "good" and "bad"magic only because he can intuit the Shekhinah, the divinepresence, hovering over the young Hebrew slave. As JacobNeusner has noted. this Midrash "provides yet another oppor-tunity for observing the same insistence that on the basis ofextrinsic traits we cannot differentiate the Israelite from thegentile magician, either as to knowledge or as to deed."58 Numerous legends with magical or sexual themes weavethemselves around Joseph's sojourn in Potiphar's house. Alegend parallel to the magical one is that Potiphar was sexuallyattracted to Joseph, but his designs were thwarted throughdivine intervention. In some versions, this intervention takes theform of the castration of Potiphar and it is used to account forthe description in some Biblical translations of Potiphar aseunuch. This variation appears in Jewish, Christian, andMuslim sources, and this illustrates that the cross-culturaldiffusion of legends increases when sexual behavior or magic isthe subject at hand. And another "magical" legend: When Joseph is proclaimed"second to the King," he is paraded through the streets and thepeople proclaim before him: 'abrek (Genesis 41:43). Though thisis now understood by many scholars as an Egyptianism,59 theBook of Jubilees (c. 200 C.E.) takes it to be a magical incan-tation, a contraction of abir el (the Great One of God)." CitingNew Testament parallels, R. H. Charles comments that this,"may be a technical term for a great magician."60 The Book ofJubilees continues in this magical vein in its retelling of theJoseph tale. When Joseph assumed his new position, the evilforces were propitiated: "Pharaoh's Kingdom was well orderedand there was no Satan and no evil person therein." The Islamic legends about Joseph as a magician may echothese stones in Midrash and Jubilees, though as we have seen,the precise method by which these stones were transmitted isno longer clear. We find that in both traditions Joseph's powersinhere in his personal effects, especially his clothing and hisdiviner's cup. Early in the Genesis account Joseph is associatedwith the "coat of many colors" that Jacob gave Joseph; later weread of the cup with which Joseph practiced divination. Al- The Centrality and Significance of the Joseph Narratives 25

Tha'labi tells us of another powerful object, an amulet that

contained a blouse made of silk from the Garden of Eden. Thisblouse protected Joseph's ancestors, Abraham and Isaac, intimes of danger. It was handed down to Jacob who placed itinside an amulet and hung it around Joseph's neck. In the pit,the angel Gabriel came to Joseph, took out the blouse, andplaced it on the young man.61 Much later in the tale, when theroles are reversed and Joseph controls the fate of his brothers,he uses their belief in the power of Egyptian magic as a ruse tobring them back to his court and provoke them into a confron-tation with him. Al-Tha'labi lavishes description on Joseph's cup,which he used to measure grain. It Wa.s made of gold and setwith gems. Previously, it had been the Pharaoh's cup.62 In this version, when Joseph's messenger overtakes thebrothers they emphasize the cup's magic power, not its orna-mental value. The messenger identifies it as the Pharaoh's cupof divination. Here we have an obvious echo of the Genesisaccount. for in Genesis 44:5 Joseph's brothers are told that theyhave stolen the cup with which Joseph practices divination. Inthe Qur'an (12:75) no mention is made of the cup as a magicalobject. Here a Biblical narrative detail may have worked its wayinto an Islamic legend. In this Islamic retelling, when Joseph'sbrothers are brought back into his presence, they are tauntedby him. Holding the cup he pretends that it1 has informed himthat the brothers had a younger brother wpom they sold intoslavery. Benjamin asserts that if Joseph would inquire of thecup he would learn the real circumstances of the cup's disap-pearance. Joseph, overcome with emotion, has to leave hisbrother's presence, but when he returns he continues the decep-tion and asserts that the cup will not vindicate Benjamin.63 Thisdemonstration so angers the brothers that they fly into a rage.leave Benjamin with Joseph. and return to Jacob in Canaan. Hidden or "magical" meanings may reveal themselves inother ways. Some Jewish and Islamic commentators see a"number symbolism" operating in the sacred texts. For thesereaders the numbers used in straightforward narrative accounts.e.g., genealogies, life spans, census reckonings, have a hiddenmeaning and constitute an "internal-midrash." This is part of alarger view that Hebrew and Arabic words, of all parts of speech,can be understood in terms of their numerical equivalents. Thisview is expressed in the Jewish exegetical tool of gernai1icf4 and26 The Wiles of Women/The Wiles of Men

its Islamic equivalent abjad. 65 As Gershom Scholem noted, the

system "consists of explaining a word or group of wordsaccording to the numerical value of the letters ... the use ofgematria was widespread in the literature of the magi andamong interpreters of dreams in the Hellenistic world. Its usewas apparently introduced in Israel during the time of theSecond Temple." As for the interpretation of numbers thatappear in the text, it is quite true, as Stanley Gevirtz says, that:

... no explanation of such numbers-whether ancient,

medieval, or modem-can be conclusive. At best, only a reasonable solution to the problem of the origin of a given number can be hoped for: what magical, cultic, or theo- logical significance that figure may have conveyed must always remain problematic.66

The number in the Joseph story that has attracted the atten-tion of the Biblical commentaries is that of his life span: 110years. "Joseph died at the age of 110 years. He was embalmedand laid to rest in a coffm in Egypt." (Genesis 50:26) The age of110 was considered by the Egyptians to be the ideal life span.671his notion parallels the Hebrew ideal of a life span of 120 years,an ideal based on Genesis 6:3 ("My spirit shall not abide in manforever, for that he is also flesh, therefore, shall his days be ahundred and twenty years.") and on Moses' age and unfailingvigor at the time of his death (Deuteronomy 34:7). But, as S.Gevirtz states. "While Egypt may provide the cultural origins ofthe figure, (of 110 years) its mathematical derivation remainsobscure."68 Building on the work of earlier critics, recent writerson the topic, Gevirtz among them, discern a mathematical pat-tern at work in the age spans of the Patriarchs and Joseph. Thepattern culminates in a "summation" life span for Joseph. Thereis a pattern of consecutive numbers at work here: Patriarch Life span Abraham 175 = 7 X 52 Isaac 180 = 5x62 Jacob 147 =3 X 72 Joseph 110 = 1 X (52 + 62 + 72)Joseph is thus the successor in the pattern (7 - 5 - 3 - 1) andthe sum of his predecessors (52+ 62 + 72).69 The Centrality and Significance of the Joseph Narratives 27

J. G. Williams points out that:

The number system in the Joseph stoxy reinforces a

great deal of textual evidence that the Joseph figure is one that combines and embodies many of the features of the portrayals of the preceding patriarchs and matriarchs. In combining and embodying these features he trans- cends his predecessors. He is like them and he is more than they. 70

The legendary material surrounding Joseph, in both the Jewish

and Islamic traditions, supports that contention. This is directlystated in the Midrash quoted above, "The following eventstranspired only on Joseph's merit." Daniel Grossberg notes that Moses' life span. 120 years,which has come to be considered the ideal Hebrew life SQan, isthe sum of a particular progression of square numbers: 22 + 42+ 62 + s2 = 120.71 Grossberg sees this as the symbolic expres-sion of the Midrash's understanding of all aspects of the Exodusstoxy-it is about the Hebrews rising above their oppressors. Forthe Egyptian ideal life span was ll 0 years. "We thus see thatthe numbers in those life spans provide an important additionaldimension to the Biblical literary medium by complementingand underscoring the narrative."72 This number symbolism amplifies the impression created bythe Biblical, Aggadic, and Qur'aruc sources that Joseph occupiesa unique position in Jewish and Islamic folklore. He is successorto the patriarchs and matriarchs, bridge to the descent intoEgypt. and, through the fulfillment of his brothers' promise totake his bones to the land of his fathers, link to the conquest andsettlement of Canaan. His uniqueness and centrality are underscored by the nar-rative art of the stoxy's construction; by the stoxy's frequent cita-tion in religious polemics, and by the portrayal of Joseph as awise man, magician, and the embodiment of personal and reli-gious fulfillment. The length and complexity of the Joseph narratives inJewish and Muslim scripture and legend has its parallel inmodern literary treatments of the Joseph stories. As one criticnotes "few Biblical figures here inspired more extensive andmore universal literacy treatment than Joseph." Tolstoy.28 The Wiles of Women/The Wiles of Men

enchanted by the twists and turns of the Biblical tale, and

obsessed with the narration of the pitfalls of sexual temptation,was inspired to study Hebrew when he was in his earlyseventies. He took a tutor, a Rabbi Minor, but found learning anew script and language at his advanced age too daunting. Thisnew project also contributed to Tolstoy's domestic problems. Ina letter to a friend, Tolstoy's wife Sonya wrote, "Leo is learningthe Hebrew language to my intense regret. .. he is wasting hisenergy on foolishness."73 But this did not diminish his enthu-siasm for the manner in which Joseph's adventures were told.Thomas Mann, who read widely and deeply in many versions ofJoseph's story. was to pay Joseph the greatest modern tributewhen he embarked on the construction of his masterwork,Joseph and His Brothers, published as a series of novels between1933 and 1944. Mann began writing the series in 1928 andtoured Egypt and Palestine in 1930. At the time of that journeyhe was already deeply immersed in the Joseph story and notedthat "it could hardly be called a trip for the purpose of study; itrather served for verifying on the spot the things of this spherewith which I had been concerned at a distance."74 For Mann, as for Tolstoy, the center and essence of theJoseph story was the Potiphar's Wife episode. Mann consideredhis retelling of the "mournful story of her passionate love of theCanaanite majordomo of her pro forma husband" as the artisticzenith of his life's work. In their enthusiasm for the story of Joseph these twotwentieth century literary giants echo the assessments of Jewishand Muslim readers and writers in earlier centuries. Let usproceed then to the story of the favored young man and hismaster's wife and examine the earliest expressions of thiscelebrated motif. The tale of the encounter between Joseph, the"well-favored," and his master's wife, a woman of great beautyand determination, has its parallels in Ancient Egyptian andclassical literature. An examination of the narrative variations ontheir encounter will enable us to come to some tentativeconclusions about the antiquity of this motif and the degree towhich these respective Near Eastern cultures-Ancient Egyptian,Jewish, and Islamic-influenced each other's storytellingtraditions. The storytelling traditions of the Greek world andtheir expression in the Homeric epics are also relevant to ourdiscussion. Some scholars posit a direct connection between The Centrality and Significance of the Joseph Narratives 29

Homeric epic and Ancient Near Eastern myth. and the sharedmotifs of the Potiphar's Wife story may serve to add supportingevidence to this theory. For those who reject this "Mediterraneanmodel" of the transmission of the Potiphar's Wife motif, earlyattempts to forge a connection between Greece and the NearEast-the Roman historians and the Church fathers engaged insuch speculation-are of themselves of great interest.75 ~~{fJ'.:;~ :l0::4fU~ 1 I..,J; ' .,

Joseph and Potiphar's Wife

2 Tile Spurned Woman: Potiphar's Wife in Scripture and Folklore

"Lie with mel''-the laconic terseness of the original text

carmot be surpassed. It goes without saying that there can be no chastity where there is no capacity-honorary captains and mutilated sun-chamberlains, for instance, are not chaste. We set out with the premise that Joseph was a whole and virile man. -Thomas Mann, Joseph in Egypt (1934)

Though I have alluded to the Potiphar's Wife motif throughout

the introduction and first chapter, I have not yet considered fullythe earliest known expressions of this motif. I will begin with theancient Mediterranean traditions, those of Egypt, Greece, andIsrael, and then proceed to the treatment of the motif in laterJewish texts and Islamic sources.

I. The Ancient Near Eastern Background

and the Biblical Tale of Potlphar's Wife

"A woman makes vain overtures to a man and then accuses

him of attempting to force her." The folklorist Stith Thompsonthus succinctly describes a motif whose earliest known expres-sion appears in the literature of the second pre-Christian mil-lennium.1 The motif remains a popular one in many literaturesand folklores. The appeal of the tale seems to be universal, andit appears in cultures that have no demonstrable links to thescriptural monotheisms. In the cultures influenced by the Bibleand the Qur'an, the motif was very widely diffused. The Islamic32 The Wiles ofWomen/The Wiles of Men

story of the "Prophet" Yusuf and his master's wife, Zuleikha,

spread throughout the Middle East and Asia. The linguistMaurice Bloomfield noted in the 1920s that "to this day the taleof Yusuf and Zuleikha is recited by minstrels in Kashmir in theKashmiri language. "2 In our own time the success of MichaelCrichton's novel, Disclosure, in which a powerful female execu-tive assumes the Potiphar's Wife role, attests to the stayingpower of the Joseph and Zuleikha story. This motif, embedded in the Joseph story in Genesis, hasaffmities with similar stories popular in Egypt of the Amarnaage (the fourteenth century B.c.) and Greece of the age of Homer(the ninth century B.c.). One could describe the earliest knownforms of this story as Mediterranean in origin. The relationshipof the Biblical tale to the Tale of Two Brothers has long beendebated; 3 classical scholars have noted parallels to our motif inGreek and Roman literature: the earliest expression of the motifin the classical world appears in the Iliad as the tale ofBellerophon.4 The Joseph narratives enjoy a central position in both theJewish and Islamic traditions. Of the various motifs operating inthe Joseph stories "Potiphar's Wife," with its elements of intrigue,romance, revenge, and vindication, must have appealed stronglyto the popular imagination and contributed to the Joseph story'spopularity. These narrative elements, and the lessons to be drawnfrom them, may explain the Qur'an's reference to YU.Sufs tale as"the best of all stories." And these same elements helped to makethe Tale of Two Brothers a popular Egyptian tale, and to ensurethe Bellerophon story a place in the Homeric cycle. As the setting of the Bellerophon story lies outside of theMiddle Eastern cultural sphere with which we have been con-cerned until now, let me situate this episode in the story of theIliad. The tale of Bellerophon is told by his grandson Glaukos, anally of the Trojans. Glaukos is about to engage the Greek warriorOiomedes in combat. But combat is pre-empted by conversationand the two fighters exchange stories of their heroic ancestors.They discover that their grandfathers were once friends andtherefore Glaukos and Oiomedes decide not to fight one another.As a legacy, they leave us the story ofBellerophon. In this chapter. I will frrst compare and contrast three earlyversions of the motif: the Egyptian, the Homeric, and theBiblical. Each version will be studied in the context of the The Spurned Woman 33

culture from which it emerged; similarities and discrepancies

between the versions will be analyzed using the comparativemethod. I will then move to the post-Biblical Jewish retellings ofJoseph's adventure with his master's wife, and from there, pro-ceed to the way the story is treated in the Qur'an and laterIslamic sources. Like Joseph himself, the story of his encounterwith his master's wife is attractive and enticing. While thesereligious and cultural traditions "made the story live" andtransmitted it across generations, they also saw fit to exercisecontrol over the story. Each culture produced a variant that wasuniquely its own. It could not be too frivolous or entertaining; insome retellings it was encumbered with didactic moralizing, andwe have seen that some Muslim sectarians called for the exclu-sion of the Potiphar's Wife motif from their scriptural canon. As a recent study of the Ancient Egyptian version of ourstory notes, the Tale of 1i.oo Brothers tells "the nearly universalstory of a handsome and chaste young shepherd who rejectsseduction by a powerful older woman and, after many adven-tures, becomes king." In all of our "Joseph" stories, the younghero is described in mythological fashion; he is endowed withdivine characteristics. In the Egyptian tale, the two brothers,Anubis and Bata, are granted the names of Egyptian divinities,and their story has affinities with the Osiris myth. In the Iliad,Bellerophon, a child of the god Poseidon. resists the beautifulAnteia, and travels in the "blameless convoy of the gods." He isable to overcome mythical beasts and fearless warriors and, insome sources, is associated with the winged horse Pegasus. Inthe end, it is the gods themselves who destroy him. In the Bible,Joseph, like the two brothers Anubis and Bata, and like thesemi-divine Bellerophon, is later given a theophoric name (aname associated with the divinity). Jehosaph (Psalm 81:6). Hisability to interpret dreams, and his status as provider of food fora starving Egypt, places him in the company of other semi-divine hero-kings of Ancient Near Eastern myth. 5 As befits a figure of mythic stature, the hero figure of all ofthese tales is endowed with great beauty and strength. Of Batawe are told that "there was no one like him in the entire land,"that Joseph was "well built and handsome," and that "toBellerophon the gods granted beauty and desirable manhood."6The hero proves irresistibly attractive to the female protagonistsof the tales: the wives of Anubis, Proitos, and Potiphar, respec-34 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

tively. Each of these proposed liaisons have an incestuous

aspect. The hero is a member of the household, not a stranger,and in each situation a relationship between the "adopted son"and the woman of the family would constitute a betrayal ofbothhuman trust and divine law. Anteia, we are told, "could notbeguile valiant Bellerophon, whose will was virtuous." In theBible Joseph responds to his master's wife's entreaties saying"How then could I do this most wicked thing, and sin beforeGod?" And in the Tale of 1Wo Brothers Bata states, "see here-you are like a mother to me. and your husband is like a fatherto mel Because-being older than I-he was the one whobrought me up. What is this great crime which you have said tome? Don't say it again!" In each case the seduction attempt is direct and the requestis bluntly stated; the woman's passion overwhelms her. OfBellerophon we read, "Beautiful Anteia was stricken with pas-sion to lie in love with him." Anubis' wife tells Bata, "Come, let'sspend an hour sleeping together." And Potiphar's wife is mostsuccinct, "lie with me." Later retellings were less comfortablewith such direct speech. That such directness was offensive tothe sensibilities of some Rabbinic exegetes is demonstrated bythe Midrash that contrasts the crassness of Potiphar's wife'sattempt at seduction with the subtlety of Ruth's approach toBoaz (Ruth 3:9),7 an approach that is ultimately successful. When her advances are rebuffed, the woman accuses thehero of attacking her. The accused is banished; he is eitherforced to flee (Bata). sent to exile in a distant land (Bellerophon).or placed in prison, a place of internal exile (Joseph). Banish-ment does not provide refuge for the hero; even in exile orprison he is not safe. The husband threatens revenge and onlysupernatural intervention can save the hero. In each of thestories the type of intervention presented in the narrative isdetermined by the cultural norms of the story's provenance. InBata's case the intervention is sudden and supernatural. Thegod Re causes a lake full of crocodiles to appear, separating thebrothers and allowing Bata to escape to the Valley of the Cedar.As befits a Greek hero, Bellerophon is able to kill the Chimairaand defeat the Amazons. Only later will the gods take theirrevenge on him. Joseph. sojourner in a land ruled by magic andnecromancy, frees himself through his ability to interpretdreams. He becomes second to the king and rises above thestation of his former master. The Spurned Woman 35

The protagonist is vindicated by this intervention and sub-

sequently rewarded. He is raised in station and becomes king orthe vice-Regent. Bata becomes a god; Bellerophon is granted "halfof all kingly prtvilege"; Joseph is told, "only in the throne will I begreater than thou." In addition to rank and temporal power, eachhero is given a beautiful and artstocratic wife by the god or king.Klmum himself fashions a companion for Bata. She was, "morebeautiful in body than any woman in the whole land, for the fluidof every god was in her." Bellerophon is granted the daughter ofthe King of Lykia. The Pharaoh gives Asenath, daughter ofPotiphera, the priest of On, to Joseph. A compensatory mech-anism is at work here: each hero is given a beautiful woman ascompensation for resisting an earlier forbidden sexual temptation. Each of these women give birth to children who becomeheroes in their own light. Bata's family line is continued througha cycle of magical transformations and reincarnations and helives eternally among the gods. Though these animal-humantransformations might seem bizarre to modem sensibilities. andthe details might seem excessive when contrasted with theconciseness of the Biblical version, they are very much in keep-ing with the Ancient Egyptian view of the goings on among thegods.8 In the Iliad, Bellerophon's descendant Glaukos, a warrtorat the walls of Troy. relates Bellerophon's tale. Glaukos too is agreat hero, and he reminds us that his own father sent him toTroy, "and urged upon me repeated injunctions to be alwaysamong the bravest. and hold my head above others, not shamingthe generation of my fathers." In the Bible, the trtbes descendedfrom Joseph and Asenath's children, Ephraim and Manasseh,are victortous warriors; they are descrtbed by Moses as, "thehorns of the wild-ox, with them he shall push the peoples, all ofthem, even to the ends of the earth. And they are the ten thou-sands of Ephraim and they are the thousands of Manasseh."(Deuteronomy 33: 17) Affmity between the lives of the protagonists of our threetales extends beyond the confmes of the Potiphar's Wife motif.Though there are similartties in the fmal outcome of each story,not all of our heroes come to the same end. Bata, through aseries of magical transformations, becomes a god-king andrules Egypt for thirty years. Bellerophon is denied these plea-sures. Because he is "blameless" he incurs the wrath of thegods, and he spends his remaining days, "skulking aside from36 The Wiles of Women/The Wiles of Men

the trodden track of humanity." Joseph, elevated to the rank of

second to the king, dies at the advanced age of 110 and lives tosee children of the third generation. We are thus witness to the parallel development of our motif,each embedded in a larger story, and each story firmly anchoredin its own culture. The Tale ojnvo Brothers strikes us as charac-teristically Ancient Egyptian. The setting is pastoral. Humansconverse with animals, women are impregnated by splinters ofwood. the gods freely meddle in the affairs of men. Here, too,there is a didactic intent. and with its echoes of the Osiris myththe story demonstrates the eventual victory of good over evil.9 Bellerophon's tale is Greek in its tragic aspect. It is the fate ofthe beautiful and blameless hero to be punished by the gods.Though he has proven himself guiltless by slaying mythicalbeasts and performing other heroic deeds, he is "hated by theimmortals," and condemned to "wander about the plain Aleios,eating his heart out." In one variation on the Bellerophon story,the lost play Stheneboia by Euripides, the spurned older womanplots revenge against the blameless hero. To defend himself heuses his wiles to entrap and destroy her. Offering to flee with herhe persuades her to mount the winged horse Pegasus. "Whenthey are out over the sea he throws her down to her death. "10 The Joseph stories are a Hebrew creation set in Egypt, andas such, they may have many authentic Egyptian touches buttheir primary purpose is to be a narrative of sacred history-toexplain Israel's sojourn in Egypt. The Bible's approach to thePotiphar's Wife motif is didactic; it provides a moral lesson tothe reader and demonstrates the rewards of virtue. Joseph,though unfairly condemned to imprisonment, has God withhim. Soon, he will rise to greatness. Many scholars haveasserted that the Tale ofTwo Brothers, which has been dated tothe thirteenth century B.c., influenced the construction andelaboration of the Joseph story. The validity of this assertionhas been debated since the publication of the Tale in 1860. 11 Aminority opinion has also postulated Egyptian influence on thedevelopment of the tale of Bellerophon. The post-Biblical legends and the parallel tales in the Muslimtradition have a more distinct lineage and a more demonstrablerelationship. They both emerge from the "Biblicist" milieu of theNear East in the first Christian centuries. The Bible, which hadbeen translated into Greek in the third pre-Christian century, The Spurned Woman 37

had diffused into the vartous cultures of the Hellenistic and earlyRoman Near East. Biblical heroes were familiar figures in NearEastern folklore. The post-Biblical legends that grew up aroundthe Joseph tale preserved both the narrative and didactic intentof the Bible; they provide the reader with details that enhancethe narrative. and serve to explain, entertain, and edify. Somelegends, as we have seen, attempt to control the material bymaking it less sexually provocative and more pietistic. Otherlegends, soon to follow, heighten the erotic content of the stonesand make Joseph's resistance to Potiphar's wife that much moreheroic.

II. Midrash

The post-Biblical Jewish sources treat the Potiphar's Wife

episode as a cautionary tale. The reader is encouraged to resistsexual temptation, as did Joseph. As recompense, he or she (forit should not be imagined that this exhortation is directed only atmen) is promised glory in this world and reward in the hereafter.In rabbinic literature, Joseph's self-control becomes para-digmatic for all who are tempted by the flesh, and Potiphar's wifebecomes the archetype of the "strange woman" of Proverbs. AsSusan Niditch has noted, "One of the dominant themes inProverbs is to keep one's distance from the loose woman, theadulteress. Joseph exemplifies the wise man: hardworking,sober, God-fearing, and able to resist forbidden fruit." MidrashRabbah applies the verses of Proverbs chapter 7 to differentepisodes in the Joseph story. 12 In order to make Joseph's resistance that much more dra-matic, and his title of ha-tzadik (the righteous one) well-deserved, the seduction attempt is presented in elaborate detail.Both Joseph and Potiphar's wife are portrayed as very hand-some people; their natural beauty is enhanced by artifice: cos-metics, perfumes, and sumptuous clothing. The wife's seduc-tion attempt (in some aggadot there are several such attempts),is carefully orchestrated, and it is almost successful. It is onlythrough strength of character, or divine intervention (or, in someversions, a combination of both) that Joseph is able to overcometemptation. Some Rabbinic elaborations of the Potiphar's Wife motifseems to hold Joseph responsible for the drama that ensues. He38 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

is not innocent of his appeal to women. It is Joseph's vanity

about his looks that brings upon him the test of Potiphar's wife:

"His master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph." What

verse precedes this passage? "And Joseph was well built and handsome." [Genesis 39:6) It may be illustrated by a man who sat in the street, pencilling his eyes, curling his hair and lifting his heel, while he exclaimed: "I am indeed a man." "If you are a man," the by- standers retorted, "here is a bear: up and attack itl" 13

The "bear," of course. is his master's wife. This Midrash echoes

other Aggadic descriptions of Joseph in which his eyes, hair,and shoes are featured. Just as Joseph is not blameless,Potiphar's wife is not villainous. Her plight is rendered humanby the strength of her feelings, and the reader feels somesympathy for her. One Midrash explains her persistent attemptsto seduce Joseph as the result of misunderstood divine gui-dance. The court astrologers told her that she would be themother of Joseph's descendants. This confirmed her feelings forthe Hebrew slave. Only later would she realize that this predic-tion was about her daughter. Asenath, who would many Josephand bear him two sons. In her desperation, Potiphar's wife, whois named Zuleikha in most of the Aggadic narratives, andnamed Ra'il in others, 14 appeals to Joseph's vanity and giveshim beautiful clothes. But this is to no avail: "he remainedequally steadfast when she lavished gifts upon him, for sheprovided him with garments of one kind for the morning,another for noon, and a third kind for the evening. "15 When gifts do not have their desired effect Zuleikha resortsto flattery, praising Joseph's physical beauty and talents. ATalmudic Midrash has Joseph ready with a pious retort for eachof Zuleikha's seductive praises. She pursued him day after daywith her amorous talk and her flattery, saying:

"How fair is thy appearance, how comely thy form!

Never have I seen so well-favored a slave as thou art." Joseph would reply, "God, who formed me in my mother's womb, hath created all men." Zuleikha: "How beautiful are thine eyes, with which thou hast charmed all Egyptians, both men and women!" The Spurned Woman 39

Joseph: "Beautiful as they may be while I am alive,

so ghastly they will be to look upon in the grave." Zuleikha: "How lovely and pleasant are thy words! I pray thee, take thy harp, play and also sing, that I may hear thy words." Joseph: "Lovely and pleasant are my words when I proclaim the praise of my God." Zuleikha: "How beautiful is thy hair! Take my golden comb, and comb it." Joseph: "How long wilt thou continue to speak thus to me? Leave offl It were better for thee to care for thy household." Zuleikha: 'There is nothing in my house that I care for, save thee alone." But Joseph's virtue was unshaken. While she spoke thus, he did not so much as raise his eyes to look at his mistress. 16

In their attempt to provide every detail of the encounter between

Joseph and Zuleikha, later aggad.ot pose a reasonable question:What language did the "Hebrew slave" (for it is as such that sherefers to him in Genesis 39: 17) and the Egyptian woman use tocommunicate?

At first, Joseph pretended not to understand the

Egyptian language, in order that he might be spared the passionate words of the infatuated woman. After a while he could no longer feign ignorance of the language. When she saw that her words were of no avail, she attempted to use force. 17

Al-Kisa'l describes the first encounter of the Hebrew slave

and his master's wife. Zuleikha tells Joseph, "How beautiful isyour language, but I do not understand it." "It is the language ofmy grandfather Abraham," said Joseph. "Were it not forbiddento polytheists, I would teach it to you." 18 Joseph's mastery of Ancient Egyptian and other languagesis attested to in a number of Jewish legends. In one tale, Josephis about to be released from prison in order to interpret Pharaoh'sdreams. The angel Gabriel comes to him and teaches him "theseventy languages of man" in one night. Pharaoh is amazed atJoseph's linguistic skill and cites it when appointing him "second40 The Wiles ojWomen/The waes of Men

to the king." That a knowledge of many languages was seen as a

sign of holiness and power is attested to by the Talmudic state-ment that after teaching him all the languages of humankindGabriel added the letter heh to Joseph's name, thus forming thename "Jehosaph," the name by which he is known in Psalm81:6. 19 While the addition of this divine element to his namemay have been taken in an earlier period as a mark of a greathero touched with a spark of the divine, in the Talmudic era itwas seen as a sign of accomplishment and erudition. The idea that mastery of language is the key to power was acommon one in the Ancient Near East. In Egypt, mastery of thescribal arts provided access to the corridors of power and ambi-tious young men were encouraged to enter the scribal profession.Jewish and Muslim legends concerning "the wisest of all men,"King Solomon, emphasize his mastery of all human languages, aswell as his ability to communicate with the animal kingdom andtheJirm.20 One Midrashic portrayal of the seduction attempt gives usboth the time and the setting of the encounter. The time is the"Nile Festival" which celebrated the inundation of the river.Potiphar and his retinue have gone to celebrate the festival onthe banks of the river, while Zuleikha remains home, feigningillness. Joseph has been assigned to work in the fields. Thesetting is the receiving room of Potiphar's estate. Zuleikhadresses and perfumes herself and sits in the vestibule throughwhich Joseph will have to pass. When Joseph comes in from thefield, "Zuleikha stands before him in all her beauty of person andmagnificence of raiment and repeats the desire of her heart. "21Here we find echoes of the seduction attempt in the Tale ojnvoBrothers. In that tale, Anubis, the elder brother, is away whenBata comes in from his work in the fields. Bata fmds his brother'swife fixing her hair and it is then that she tries to seduce him. In the Biblical account we are told, "One such day, he cameinto the house to do his work." Rabbinic opinion was divided asto what that "work" was. And this divided opinion speaks to thequestion of Joseph's intentions. According to Rashi, the Rabbisdiffered in their interpretation of the Biblical verse.

Rav and Samuel disputed regarding the interpreta-

tion of this phrase-one said it literally implies his work and the other said it implies to yield to herY The Spurned Woman 41

A later Mid.rash compilation, the Yalkut Shimoni, further extends

the range of opinion about Joseph's intentions by adding thispietistic variant: 'The day on which Joseph came into the houseto do his work was the Sabbath day, and the work consisted inrepeating the Torah, which he had learned from his father." This divided opinion also extended to the interpretation ofJoseph's resistance to Zulelkha's advances. One group of Agga-dists sees Joseph's refusal as a manifestation of self-control anda reluctance to betray the trust that Potiphar placed in him. 1hisinterpretation seems closer to the simple meaning of the Biblicaltext, and it echoes the parallel moment in the stories of Bata andBellerophon. In Thomas Mann's twentieth century elaborate nar-ration of Joseph's encounter with his master's wife, the youngman's youth and virility are contrasted with the disinterest andpassivity of Potiphar, the high-ranking court eunuch. Here tooJoseph's resistance is a triumph of self-control and the realiza-tion that restraint is in his self-interest. For "it goes withoutsaying that there can be no chastity where there is no capacity-honorary captains and mutilated sun-chamberlains, for instance,are not chaste. We set out with the premise that Joseph was awhole and virile man. "23 Earlier storytellers portray Joseph asabout to succumb to Zuleikha but being prevented from doing soby divine interoention. The intervention takes the form of a vision.In one source it is an image of his mother that appears to him, inanother it is one of his father. 21 In the Midrash Hagadol, thethirteenth-century anthology in which there is a tendency toconflate details from variants of a tale, we read that both ofJoseph's parents appear to him in a vision. In a remarkable variant in an earlier Mid.rash, divine inter-vention takes a physiological form: "The bow was drawn but notrelaxed ....That is Joseph actually went into sin but found him-self impotent.. ..Rabbi Isaac said: His seed was scattered andissued through his fmgernails. "25 In this variant, as one modernscholar noted, "Joseph's intended offense is deterred either bythe censoring vision of his parents or by the impairment of hissexual capacity.26 Though Joseph has rebuffed her, Zulelkha does not relent.She tries again on numerous occasions. The Aggadists see sup-port for this in the Biblical phrase "much as she coaxed Josephday after day." (Genesis 39: 10)27 Even after he is imprisoned,Zulelkha visits Joseph, promising him his freedom if he will givehimself to her.42 The Wiles of Women/The Wiles of Men

But he would say "better it is to remain here than to

be with thee and commit a trespass against God." These visits to Joseph in prison Zukheila continued for a long time, but when fmally, she saw that all her hopes were in vain, she let him alone. 28

m. In Qur'an and Islamic Legends

Some of these Midrashic elements may have been trans-mitted to Muslim compilers of legend. This may have occurredthrough cultural dilfusion-legends of Biblical heroes were circu-lating in the Jewish and Christian communities of pre-IslamicArabia and later throughout the Islamic empire, or throughdirect transmission-Jewish converts to Islam often broughtwith them tales and fragments of tales that would later enrtchIslamic elaborations of "Biblical" themes. One of these converts,Ka'bal-Al}bar, will figure prominently in our discussion ofIslamic elaborations of the Joseph tales. In my analysis of the Egyptian, Greek, and Hebrew treat-ments of the Potiphar's Wife motif, I demonstrated that eachvariation on the motif is frrmly anchored in the culture fromwhich it emerged, that each retelling is distinctive and appro-priate to its own cultural norms. In a similar fashion, Midrashicembellishments are the product of the pietistic world-view of theRabbinic exegetes. In the Qur'an, and in later Islamic versionsof the tale, we move even further away from the world of theHeroic Age of ancient Israel and more to the realm of thepietistic. In SDrat Ylisuf, elements of our motif are crafted intoan artfully constructed moral tale; its world view is that of earlyIslam. The motif thus remains within the Mediterranean tradi-tion from which it emerged, yet develops its own distinctiveIslamic voice. As noted earlier. SDrat Ylisuf is the only chapter of the Qur'anthat is devoted solely to one personage. Its narrative form is of amore continuous and cohesive nature than other chapters.Within that narrative the Potiphar's Wife story is the centralepisode of the Sura and is recounted in considerable detail. If we look back to the Ancient Near Eastern and Biblicalversions we can see a set of affmities that the stories of Bata,Bellerophon, and Joseph share. Schematizing our analysis willenable us to see how the Qur'an's treatment of the motif differs The Spurned Woman 43

from the earlier versions. We noted five areas of similarity

between the various retellings.

l) The hero has achieved semi-divine status.

2) His is strong and handsome. 3) His master's wife attempts to seduce him, and the attempt is sudden and direct. 4) He rejects her advances and is punished. 5) He is eventually vindicated and rewarded.

In Siirat Ytisuf and in the Islamic genre of Qi~~ al-anbiya',

each of these elements is woven into the stoxy in a distinctivelyIslamic manner. The intent is didactic; Yusufs actions are a"sign," and the reader is to strive to emulate the prophet. Let usexamine the way Muslim tradition responded to these elementsof the Joseph stoxy.

Semi-divine Status

In Islam, Joseph is not a semi-divine hero, he is a holy man,

and a nabi, a God possessed messenger, a prophet. In Sura40:34, we are told that Yusuf was sent as a prophet but hispeople rejected him. After his death it was thought that Allahwould not send another prophet. Yusuf is thus seen as a pre-cursor of Muhammad. Al-Tha'labi related that Muhammad wasdazzled by Yusufs beauty when he saw him in heaven. 29 Thistheme also appears in the mfroj literature (the descriptions ofMuhammad's "Night Journey"}, where we are told that Muham-mad meets Yusuf in a position of honor in the third heaven.This meeting is also depicted in some of the illustrated manu-scripts of the mi'raj. 30

Beauty

The women of the city in Sura 12 are dazzled by Yusufs

beauty. They cxy, "This is no mortal; he is no other but a nobleangel." This exclamation implies that his physical beauty isinseparable from his divine attributes; he is both human andangelic, and thus underscores Ylisufs direct relationship to theearlier prototypes of the legend. The beautiful man-god figureappears in legend as early as the Mesopotamian stories of the44 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

Gilgamesh cycle. Gilgamesh's beauty was described as a mix-

ture of the human and the divine. Like Joseph he was both adreamer and interpreter of dreams and had been granted thepower of prophecy. In Islamic tradition Yusufs beauty and pro-phecy are evoked in one description of Muhammad's father 'AbdAllah, the son of 'Abd al-Muttalib of the clan of the Quraysh:"'Abd Allah was, for beauty, the Joseph of his times. Even theoldest men and women of Quraysh could not remember havingseen his equal. He was now in his twenty-flfth year, in the fullflower of his youth...could it be that 'AbdAllah was the expectedProphet? Or was he to be the father of the Prophet?"3 1

The Seduction Attempt

Beau tiful Yusuf is the object of sexual desire. In a com-

mentary on 12:21 "Or we may take him for our own son" al-18-bari states that Qitfir, the name given in Arabic sources for theEgyptian master of the house, was sexually attracted to Ylisufand therefore wished to take him into his household. This echoesRabbinic tradition where we fmd that the Egyptian's designs onJoseph were thwarted when God made him a eunuch.32 Hiswife's plans, on the other hand, almost come to fruition. As inthe earlier stories the woman's statement is direct, "Come, takeme," and Joseph is at the point of responding with full ardor-but "he sees his master's proof." In this explanation for thecurbing of Joseph's passion, the Qur'an is anticipated by theMidrash quoted earlier, which tells us that the image of hisfather Jacob appeared before him. What is unique in Sfuat Ylisufis that although the hero is proven innocent (his shirt being tomin the back) and his master is aware of his innocence, he never-theless must be imprisoned, for that is the next step on hispredestined path. The Qur'an implies that only God could save Joseph fromtemptation. The Qur'an has Ylisuf stopped by the burhan rabbihi.the "image or proof of his lord." variously interpreted by thecommentators as that of his father, or of Potiphar, or by someother apparition. The Qur'an's approach is in consonance withthe doctrine of qadr (predestination).33 Ylisufs actions are not theconsequence of his own will but are predetermined. He is not ahero for resisting, he resists because he is divinely ordained to doso. But not all of the accounts in the Tales of the Prophets liter- The Spurned Woman 45

ature depict Joseph as a helpless victim of Zuleikha's lust. In al-

Kisa'i's retelling, it took more than a vision of the divine, or of hisfather, to dampen Joseph's ardor.

She threw herself upon him and untied seven of the

knots in his trousers, one after the other. For she desired him: and he would have taken her (Qur'an 12:24), had not just then Gabriel descended in the form of his father Jacob, biting his own fmgertips.34

Despite this piquant detail, the emphasis here is on predes-

tination, and on YDsufs tale as a "sign," a didactic allegory forthe community of believers, and this differentiates it from thethree earlier versions, the Ancient Egyptian, the Greek, and theBiblical. These were products of an Heroic Age, one in which theheroes did as they wished and acted as their impulses guidedthem. If they did resist temptation, that too was an act of hero-ism. But in Rabbinic and Islamic sources the Potiphar's wifeepisode becomes a tale of instruction, extolling the moral valuesinstitutionalized by a religious community.

Vindication and Reward

In the ancient treatments of this motif, when our hero is

vindicated he is not only rewarded by elevation to a high socialstation, he is also granted a beautiful wife, just compensationfor resisting a woman forbidden to him. But this theme is notoperative in Slirat Yusuf. As it was divine intervention thatprevented him from succumbing to Potiphar's wife, Joseph isnot granted a wife in reward, for in his case we cannot say thathe resisted temptation. Because YDsuf is portrayed as guided by fate. and not by thenormal human impulses, his motives are never brought intoquestion. There is no implication in the Qur'aruc tale that YDsufmay have been vain or arrogant, and that he therefore "earned"his fate; or that, as the Midrash put it, he deserved to be con-fronted by "a bear." This view of Yusuf applies to his wholecareer: in his relationship with his brothers he is viewed as thewronged-one, the victim, and they are wrongdoers. In theGenesis narrative the portrayal of Joseph is not quite so sympa-thetic. His arrogance and vanity manifest themselves of an early46 The Wiles ofWomen/The Wiles of Men

age. We read ofllis grandiose dreams (Genesis 37:5--12) and are

told he brought the evil report of his brothers back to his father(Genesis 37:2). Some Rabbinic exegetes were quite harsh in theirjudgment of Joseph. We have seen Joseph's vanity condellUled.But, as we have noted. other Jewish exegetes saw the inexorablehand of fate operating in the tale and this is the attitude thatmay have influenced the Islamic retellings of our story. In its portrayal of Joseph the Qur'an has moved away fromthe richly descriptive modes of an Heroic Age. modes in whichthe vagaries of personality and passion hold sway. This movefrom the heroic to the holy was apparent earlier in the Rabbinicperiod. With this transition from the heroic type of descriptionto the didactic type. Joseph becomes less of a hero and more ofa.holyman. But some of the Qur'aruc commentators and Muslim his-torians emphasize Yusufs enthusiastic participation in thiserotic encounter. Commenting on the verse. "For she desiredhim; and he would have taken her, but that he saw the proof ofhis Lord." al-'fclbari relates the following tradition: "Ibn 'Abbaswas asked how far Yusuf went in following his desires. He said,'He loosened his waistband and sat with her as one whopossesses (a woman) would sit.... Another tradition. also in thename of Ibn 'Abbas, follows. "How far did Yusuf go in followinghis desires?" He said, "She lay on her back for him and he satbetween her legs removing his clothes."35 But this is a legend, not a scriptural detail. From a literarystandpoint, Joseph emerges in the Qur'dn as something of a "flat"character, one without much depth. This mode of portrayalchanges in some of the Islamic elaborations on the tale. both in the tajsfr and in the q~ literature. The portrayals of Ra'il/Zuleikha. on the other hand, are even more fully developed; her human drives are fully acknowledged. Zuleikha is seen as motivated by passion and animated by kayd (deceit or malice). Her behavior, therefore, is portrayed in a less deterministic manner and is more in the heroic tradition. The Qur'an attests to the strength of her passion and quotes her companions, who said of Ylisuf . "He smote her heart with love." Al-'fclbart quotes a tradition that gives this metaphor a physical sense. "For her love for Yusuf had reached the pericar- dium of her heart. entered beneath it, and overpowered her heart. The pericardium is the cover and veil of the heart." The Spurned Woman 47

IV. The Wiles of Women/The Wiles of Men

In the Qur'an, Potiphar's wife is accused by her husband of

acting out of guile or deceit; it is not only her individual guilethat is condemned, rather it is the guile of all women, 'This is ofyour women's guile; surely your guile is great." Al-Bayqaw'i, inhis commentary on the Qur'an, notes that in the Arabic phrasemin kaydikwma, 'The plural pronoun is addressed to her andto those like her, or to women as a whole. "36 Though the actionsof one woman are condemned in this stoxy, the concept of kaydis generalized and applied to all women. That women are capable of guile, and that men are suscep-tible to their wiles, was an idea that derived from a set of assump-tions about gender relations, assumptions that functioned tomaintain a social order in which men dominated in both theprivate and public spheres. In this world view relations betweenthe sexes must be controlled; a disruption of these controls candestabilize the wider society. In Islamic societies, as PaulaSanders has noted, "Although men and women presumably boreequal responsibility for illicit relations, that responsibility wasconstrued in terms of certain assumptions about the natures ofmen and women. Men were considered susceptible to seductionand the actors, whereas women were considered to be bothseductresses (that is, tempting men to act in certain destructiveways) and the recipients of the men's acts." Thus "women's guile"is viewed as an inherent female characteristic against which menmust be warned, and if possible, protected. As Gordon Newby putit, "In this androcentric view female sexuality, unless controlled,leads to evil and destruction.''37 In the Sirah, the early biography of MuQa.mmad, the dangerof women's kayd is illustrated in an episode said to have takenplace toward the end of the Prophet's life. The episode illustratesthat even within the Prophet's household, among his trustedwives, he was both suspicious of, and susceptible to their wiles.When he knew that his end was near Mul)ammad wanted toemphasize his choice of Abu Bakr as successor by having himlead the community in prayer. But Mul)ammad's wives. Aishahand Hafsah, conspired to prevent this. When Hafsah was aboutto speak, "the Prophet silenced her with the words: "Ye are evenas the women that were with Joseph. Tell Abu Bakr to lead theprayer.'"3848 'The Wiles ojWomen/171e Wiles of Men

An analysis of the use of the term kayd in the Qur'an indi-

cates that "guile" or "deceit" is a misleading translation of theArabic original, and that kayd is a quality attributed to men andwomen. "Artifice" or "strategem," terms that do not have pejora-tive connotations, would be more appropriate translations ofkayd. Elsewhere in the Qur'an lcayd is not a stratagem of menand women only, it is also utilized by God against unbelievers.There are at least thirty-four uses of the Arabic root K.Y.D. inthe Qur'an, and a number of them refer to God's actions. InSUra.tYusufitself(l2.76} God's kayd is celebrated.39 In Sura 7:182 we also fmd Kayd as an attribute of Allah:

And those who cry "lies" to our signs

we will draw them on little by little whence they know not And I respite them Assuredly, my guile (kayd} is sureo

The ability to be guileful is not then in itself a negative char-

acteristic; it can be used for good or for evil. Admiration of thisquality is typical of the literature of a culture's Heroic Age. As wehave seen, the Potiphar's wife figure of the Bible and its AncientNear Eastern parallels. is still closely tied to that age, whileJoseph of the legends. whose character has been transformedinto that of a holy man, is more a figure of a pietistic age. ForZuleikha, more than for Joseph the nabi (prophet}, kayd is anappropriate characteristic. One can adopt the lcayd interpretation of behavior andretroject it to the Biblical Patriarchal Narratives. The actions ofthe women in these narratives, including Rebecca, Rachel,Tamar, and Serah, may be viewed through the prism of kayd.Whether women are the primary tricksters of the narrative andwhether the Biblical text implies that there is an essentialLyguileful quality in women, is a question that I will examine inchapter V, 'The Women of the Joseph Story." In Genesis 27, Rebecca plots to fool her husband Isaac andsecure his blessing for Jacob. When she is successful, she iswise enough to send Jacob to her brother's house in Haran.Isaac realizes that he has been duped and tells Esau: "Yourbrother came here by a ruse (mirmah) and he carried off yourblessing" (Genesis 27:35}. Mirmah is here used in the same The Spurned Woman 49

sense as kayd. It is Jacob that is accused of mirmah (trickery);

Isaac, presumably, does not know of his wife's role in the matter. Rachel uses deceit and trickery when she steals the tera-phim. the household "idols," from Laban's house (Genesis 31).In doing so she deceives both her father and her husband, whohave no knowledge of her plan (31 :32). When her effects aresearched she resorts to further trickery by asking that she beleft a lone because she is menstruating. The incident of theteraphim, and the subsequent encounter with Laban, sparksJacob's impassioned speech in which he justifies his decision toleave for Canaan. 1 Tamar uses considerable guile to entice her father-in-lawJudah. When she succeeds in her plan and is pregnant withJudah's children he acknowledges that she is justified (Genesis38:26). Tamar's kayd ensures the continuation of Judah's line-age. Her children are the ancestors of the Davidic line, and byextension, of the Messianic line. (Ruth 4:18-22) Dinah, in Genesis 34, is the catalyst in a drama in whichtrickery plays a pivotal role. Outraged at Shechem's rape of theirsister, Jacob's sons trick the men of Shechem into believing thatthey will be accepted by Jacob's family if they are circumcised.As in the story of Jacob and Esau, the text uses the term mirmahto describe the hidden agenda behind their offer of acceptance.

Jacob's sons replied to Shechem and his father

Hamor with mirmah (guile). (Gen. 34: 13).

Weak from the pain of circumcision, the Shechemites are easy

prey for Simon and Levi, who destroy the city. They kill all themales, take the women and children captive, and plunder thelivestock (34:26-29). Jacob condemns them for their impetu-ousness, fearing the wrath of his Canaanite neighbors (34:30).Though it is the men who are deceitful here, Dinah is not acompletely passive figure in the drama. Some commentators seeher as an active participant in the early stage of the drama, forshe "went out to see the daughters of the land." We have seen that the stories of Rebecca. Rachel, Tamar,and Dinah (Genesis 27; 31; 34; 38) all utilize the mirmah/kaydmotif. 42 This sequence of stories foreshadows, and anticipatesthe full development of the motif in the Potiphar's Wife story inGenesis 39. In all of these instances it is the establishment of a50 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles ofMen

proper genealogy, and the preservation of the family group

through which the divine promise is to be fulfilled, that is ofoverriding concern to the Biblical narrator. Rebecca saves thebirthright for Jacob; Rachel ensures that Jacob obtains the tera-phim. the symbols of authority. After the rape of Dinah, Simonand Levi prevent the union with the Canaanites of Shechem, andthe story of Tamar provides a link to the historical future whenJudah's descendants will rule the nation. We have here a series ofstories in which the use of mirmah/ kayd is justified, and onemight say, valorized. Uppermost is the need to ensure the con-tinuity and purity of the family line. In the culminating story,Joseph resists Potiphar's wife. marries Asenath, and the familyline is preserved through their progeny. A thirteenth century compendium of Islamic folklore, TheSubtle Ruse, 43 presents all of Slirat Yusuf (and not only thePotiphar's Wife episode) as a series of stories of kayd. Theanonymous author of this work retells each of the episodes ofthe story, indicating in each how the characters are constantlydeceiving others or being deceived themselves. A number ofexamples, all based on the Qur'an or on Islamic legends, willindicate his approach:

l} Joseph is the victim of a ruse when his brothers entice

him to the well to drink and then throw him in to die. 2) Jacob is the victim of his sons' ruse when they bring Joseph's bloody clothes to him. 3) When given the opportunity, Joseph plays a number of tricks on his brothers in Egypt. He thus keeps them in a continual state of suspense and anxiety. 4) When Jacob sends his sons to Egypt for a second time he uses a ruse in his attempt to outwit the "evil eye." He tells his sons not to enter the same gate together when they reach Egypt; this would subject them to the power of the evil eye. Rather. they should enter by different gates.

A view of kayd as a dominant factor in human behavior

permeates the greatest collection of Islamic folklore. the 'alj lay Iawa-layla, The Thousand and One Nights. 44 One full section ofthe work. the Sindibadnama., is dubbed by some translators asThe Malice of Women. though on closer examination it is not only The Spurned Woman 51

the kayd of women that is celebrated here, but the kayd of allbeings: men, women, and the jinn, those spirtt beings, "createdfrom unsmoking fire, ... who exercise direct and formativeinfluence upon the affairs of humanity. "45 In this section of theNights, much is made of "women's kayd," and the spirit inwhich these tales are told encourages the translation of kayd as"malice." For the protagonists delight in the results of theirtrickery. After hearing tales that tell of women's guile, thewomen of the story then have their opportunity to counter-attack. They respond by relating corresponding tales of the"wiles of men." Despite the obvious advantages granted to theirmale antagonists (they get to tell their stories flrst, and havemore of them to tell), the women acquit themselves honorably. This cycle of stories, the Sindibadnama, was based on aPersian saga of the ninth century C.E. Later translated intoArabic, it became one of the core elements in the formation ofthe loosely-defmed corpus of tales that made up the Thousandand One Nights. But before its inclusion in that corpus it wastranslated into Syriac and Hebrew. These translations preservedboth the framework and engaging contents of the saga, whosePersian original no longer survives. The narrative device used to structure or "frame" the 1001nights is in itself a tale of "the wiles of women and the wiles ofmen." Both King Shaluiyar and his brother Shahza.man discoverthat their wives deceived them in their absence. Discouraged anddisillusioned, they leave their respective kingdoms and set off forthe wilderness. There they have an adventure that proves tothem that even the jinn are helpless before the wiles of women.And here, in the opening chapter of the Nights, the Potiphar'sWife motif is cited by the woman who tricked the jinn and thenforced the king and his brother to have sex with her.

Take warning, then, by Joseph's history, and how a

woman sought to do him bane... For great the wonder were if any man alive from women and their wiles escape unharmed away. When the two Kings heard this they marvelled and said "Allah, Allah, there is no power and no virtue save in God the most High, the Supreme! We seek aid of God against the wiles of women, for indeed their craft is great. 4652 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles ofMen

This encounter fuels Shahriyar's resolve to never trust a

woman again and, M... he took an oath that every night he wouldgo unto a maid and in the morning put her to death. "47 Shahra-zad, his vizier's daughter. saves the women of the kingdom withher masterful storytelling abilities. She entertains and intriguesShahriyar and at the end of the "l 00 l nights" of her storytelling(during this period she bore the King three sons) the Kingrescinds his order and a great celebration is held. Many of the stories in the Nights are tales of trickery andcunning. 48 This is especially true of the so-called "Malice ofWomen" section. whose structure is modeled on that of thecomplete Nights. Its Mframe device" is a direct reference to thePotiphar's Wife motif:

Without issue in his old age, a King prays to the

Prophet and begets a son. When the prince attains young manhood, his tutor perceives by the stars...that if he speaks one word during the following seven days he will die. He commits him to his father's favorite damsel to be entertained by the music girls, in numerous flower- scented apartments, until the danger passes. The dam- sel. falling in love with him, offers to poison his father and set him on the throne. When she is repulsed she goes with torn clothes and a tale of attempted rape to the King who immediately condemns his son to death. The chief vizier, however. changes the King's mind with two tales. 49

The champions of the prince and the damsel are called uponto present stories that support their respective cases. Thereensues a debate in the form of storytelling in which tales of "themalice of women" are matched by tales of "the malice of men." Ina fashion that is unique in the Nights (where the storyteller gen-erally shies away from a didactic tone) each tale ends with amoralistic conclusion. The point of each episode is made veryexplicit. e.g., "beware of women's speech." "beware of the malice ofmen," "one can be suspicious without due cause," etc. Thisemphasis on the didactic intent of each story further ties thissection to the Islamic view of the Joseph story and lends credenceto the supposition that "the malice of women and the malice ofmen" was an earlier independent work which was later incor-porated into the larger Nights. 50 The Spurned Woman 53

The kayd section of the Nights ends with a peaceful resolu-

tion in which the two sides are reconciled. Convinced that themalice of both men and women have been amply demonstrated,"The prince declares that the damsel should be forgiven andsent away. The King proudly confers his throne on his marvel-lous son. "51 In one manuscript tradition of the Nights, direct linguisticreference to SiDnt Yrlsuj appears in a related tale. One of theviziers tells the story of The Husband and the Parrot, and uses itto "prove" the deceitfulness of women. He addresses the king,saying "Oh King, I have informed you of this only so that youmay know that the wiles of women (kayd.alumna) are mighty."This is a rephrasing of Potiphar's words to Zuleikha. 52 Aninstructive parallel may be found in the "wiles of women" sec-tions of the great Japanese novel. Lady Murasaki's Tale of Geryi.The gentle (and not so gentle) mockery of women that the youngmen of the court display in their stories is later countered andsubverted by the mirror-images of these tales, told by women,in which men are mocked for their fickleness and cupidity. 53 Despite the passage of centuries the Potiphar's Wife motifremained vital in Islamic folklore. It permeated both the struc-ture and the content of the Thousand and One Nights, which,while anthologized in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries,draws upon stories that had been circulating in the MiddleEast. North Africa, and Southern Asia for a millennium. Itsearliest written sections date to the ninth century. 54 The roots ofsome of the tales reach into the second pre-Christian Millen-nium and they echo motifs present in the tales of the AncientNear East and stories of the Bible. Scholars have noted Persianand Greek influence on the Nights, specifically in the areas ofstructure and plot respectively. But let us not de-emphasize theIslamic genius of the Nights. Von Grunebaum called for "greateremphasis on the genuinely Arabic" when we analyze any givenepisode in the Nights. And in a poetic and insightful image henoted that "the structure of Islamic civilization repeats thestructure of the Nights. Islamic civilization is thoroughlysyncretistic, and it proves its vitality by coating each and everyborrowing with its own inimitable patina. "55 That Joseph lives asa symbol of beauty in the Nights. and that the themes thatdominated the scriptural Joseph material are also present inthis great folklore anthology, is a further example of the remark-54 The Wiles ojWomen/Th.e Wiles ofMen

able cultural continuity of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean

civilization. Hodgson observed that some Qur'anic tales are"reminders of episodes which are often presumed to be known tothe audience." In the early Islamic centuries other Near Easternepisodes and themes were disseminated throughout the Islamicworld, eventually making their way into the Thousand and OneNights and other forms of literature. "Biblical" figures, greaterand lesser were also known to Islamic audiences, but noneachieved the popularity ofYusuf. The preservation and transmission of Nights tales andmanuscripts was an endeavor in which Muslims, Jews, andChristians participated. Goitein noted that the frrst recorded use of the title A Thousand and One Nights is found in the CairoGenizah book lists of a twelfth century Jewish physician ofCairo.56 Jewish storytellers of thirteenth century Provence producedthe Mishle Sendebar, a Hebrew version of the Sindibadnama.This version contains a delightful story which both affrrms theworld view of the "Wiles of Women" literature while at the sametime subverting the notion that women's cunning can be anti-cipated. 'The story tells of a man who thought he had writtendown all the wiles of women. At the last stopping-place on hisjourney, he boasts to the governor's wife of his accomplishment.She immediately makes overtures to him and as he is about tosuccumb, she shouts for her husband. The stranger faints offright. When the governor arrives, his wife says merely that thevisitor was so sick he almost choked when she fed him. Whenthe governor departs, she asks the stranger whether he hadever beheld this variety of cunning before. He destroys hisnotebooks and admits that his research has been in vain. "57 In tracing the development of the Potiphar's Wife motif, wehave traveled through the Biolical Land of Israel and the citiesof Islam. Egypt, the original setting of our motif, may haveslipped into the background. Let us restore the Egyptian settingto its place of significance and see how that milieu-real orimagined-affected the telling of the tale.Joseph Led into Prison 3

'The Egyptian Background of the

Joseph Story

With Genesis 37 we come to the saga of Joseph. which is

one of the most appealing narratives in world literature; for in it are blended the spirits of Israel and Egypt. -C. H. Gordon (1965)

Egyptology and the Study of the Narratives

In the Joseph Story. the episode most evocative of Ancient

Egyptian culture and societal norms is "Potiphar's Wife," a talealso embedded in the mid-thirteenth century s.c. text, The Taleof noo Brothers. Was this Egyptian story an inspiration for theBiblical author or redactor? Shall we take the inclusion of thismotif in the Biblical Joseph narratives as an indication of theBiblical author's familiarity with Egyptian culture, a familiaritythat would then authenticate the historicity of this Biblicalnovella and lend it an air of antiquity and authority? Somematerial that may help us answer these questions has alreadybeen provided. Other clues may lie in the general Egyptianbackground of the latter part of Genesis. Is Genesis' portrayal of Ancient Egypt accurate? Are thepeople, places, and events named in the Joseph narrativesrepresentations of an historical reality? Or are they merelyshadows of an imagined Egypt. one conjured up by a lateBiblical writer or editor? The secondary literature on this ques-tion is voluminous and there are several book-length treatmentsof the topic. According to Donald Redford, the author of a mono-graph on the Biblical Joseph. "Over the past century and a half.many Egyptologists have been attracted to the Joseph story. The58 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

list comprises something of a "Who's Who of Egyptology."! Many

of these early studies focused on the dating of the Joseph story,with an assigned date ranging from the nineteenth to thefourteenth centuries B.C.E. But as there is no Egyptian corrobor-ation of the specific events and personages of the Joseph story(or of other Biblical stories set in Egypt), such attempts at datingare notoriously difficult. As the study of ancient Egypt becameindependent of the study of the Bible, the question of the date ofthe narratives was no longer asked by scholars outside of Bib-lical studies. More recently, interest in the narratives' Egyptian back-ground has shifted from an attempt to "validate" the Biblical textthrough Egyptological proofs to a more literary approach, onewhich discerns in the Genesis account a successful attempt toprovide the reader withauthentic details of daily life in AncientEgypt, much as a novelist might provide the reader with anaccurate evocation of the historical past. As early as the 1950s,Janssen noted that:

As the chronological problem, and especially the

problem of synchronism, is rather complicated, it seems to be preferable to avoid it and to focus our attention on questions where chronology is not of prime impor- tance ... Egyptian sources can be helpful in elucidating the Bible text and to see better the background and cir- cumstances of several topics dealt with by the narrator. 2

Considerable scholarly effort has been devoted to these investi-

gations, and it has been asserted by one authority that "At everyturn the Biblical author shows knowledge of Egyptian condi-tions...The whole Joseph story is to be understood against theEgyptian background. "3 Not all scholars agree. The end of the nineteenth centuryand the first decades of the twentieth century witnessed thetendency to view Ancient Egypt. (and all of the Ancient NearEast) through a Biblical prism. This has changed radically sincemid-century. There is now a tendency among Egyptologists (andtheir colleagues in parallel disciplines in the study of AncientMesopotamia) to distance themselves from Biblical connections.For both the Biblicists and non-Biblicists among scholars of theancient Near East, the focus of the argument often revolves The Egyptian Background of the Joseph Stoxy 59

around Genesis, and when Egypt's relation to the Bible is under

scrutiny, around the Joseph narratives, and the descriptions ofwhat befell the Hebrews when there arose a "King who knew notJoseph." {Exodus 1:8) From its inception, European and American scientific arch-aeology was subject to the push and pull of the public's interestin the histoxy of events they knew from the Bible. The impetusto much of early archaeological excavation lay in the expectationof excavators (and their financial backers) that the new sciencewould "affirm the Biblical truths." The actual recovexy of ancientstexts, and their decipherment and interpretation, were influ-enced by theological and social concerns. With the shift ininterest to a literacy reading of the narratives. and the achieve-ment of a "consensus that the Joseph stoxy is a novella, a genrecategory that facilitates the original conceptions of an artistrather than the patterns of a traditional folk stoxy, "4 scholarshiphas shifted away from an "affirming" mode and has focused onelucidating the rich novelistic detail that girds the stoxy. One aspect of the Joseph narrative that cries out for eluci-dation is the constant reference in Genesis to the social barrierserected by the Egyptians in order to maintain their separationfrom and superiority over foreigner&-in our case the Hebrews.Both ancient and modern historians note that the Egyptiansconsidered themselves distinct from, and superior to, all otherpeoples. It is a persistent theme in Herodotus' History, and ithas echoes in the remarks of modern historians:

For the Egyptian there could be no doubt that his

countxy was quite distinct; it was a universe on its own, unrelated to other lands abroad. To be away from Egypt was to be divorced from reality; being an Egyptian meant living in Egypt. worshipping Egyptian gods (who had nothing to do with the world outside), dying and, above all, being buried in Egypt. The special features of Egyptian life reflected this egocentric view, which treated all things Egyptian as being of their kind unique. 5

In order to keep this sense of separateness alive, social distinc-

tions were enforced both within Egypt, when Egyptians wereconfronted with foreigners living among them. and abroad,when Egyptians lived among the "uncivilized" Asiatics. In the60 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

latter case. the resident Egyptian felt uncomfortable even when

living the "good life." Tills is vividly illustrated in the Romance ofSinuhe, the tale of the adventures of an Egyptian official in aforeign land who is left in exile when his pharaoh falls. "He hadeverything an Asiatic could want. But to an Egyptian, even anAsiatic paradise was bitter exile. All Sinuhe's prosperity was invain because of his longing to return to his native land." Some ofthe parallels between Sinuhe's story and Joseph's are so striking(especially in the sequencing of events), that one scholar hassuggested that Sinuhe was the prototype of the Joseph story.6 In the following section, I will examine those social barriersalluded to in the Biblical text. Tills provides us with a case studyof the way our knowledge of ancient Egyptian life can be used toenhance our understanding of the Bible's Egyptian "back-ground." When we move to the post-Biblical period, Jewish andMuslim legends, and their treatments of the Egyptians aspects ofthe Joseph story. provide a case study in the use of imagined"Egyptian" elements in folkloric retellings. For the civilization ofAncient Egypt was by then only a series of ruins. But in thepopular imagination these ruins came to life through imaginativeretellings of sacred history. By the same token, the study of theselegends illustrates the reciprocal and complex relationshipbetween the folkloric traditions of Jews and Muslims.

Egyptians and Hebrews:

Social Contacts and Social Barriers

Within the Biblical Joseph story we find four references to

social barriers between Egyptians and Hebrews. These are inthe areas of 1) dress and general appearance, 2) language, 3)eating habits. 4) means of earning a livelihood. The first twobarriers are implied in the Biblical text:

1) Thereupon Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and he was

rushed from the dungeon. He had his hair cut and changed his clothes. and he appeared before Pharaoh. (Genesis 41:14)7

2) They did not know that Joseph understood for

there was an interpreter between him and them. (Genesis 42:23) The Egyptian Background of the Joseph Story 61

The latter two cases are reports of Egyptian measures taken

to prevent social interaction between Egyptians and foreigners,and are directly stated:

3) They served him by himself. and them by them-

selves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by them- selves; for the Egyptians could not dine with the Hebrews, since that would be abhorrent to the Egyptians. (Genesis 43:32)

4) So when Pharaoh summons you and asks, "What

is your occupation?" you shall answer, "Your servants have been breeders of livestock from the start until now, both we and our fathers"-so that you may stay in the region of Goshen. For all shepherds are abhorrent to Egyptians. (Genesis 46:33-4)

Both of the latter verses use the Hebrew tdevah (abomination,

abhorrence), to express the Egyptians attitude toward socialinteraction with foreigners. These social barriers are alluded to in Ancient Egyptianliterature and in Jewish and Muslim retellings of the Josephstory, but the degree to which these barriers are emphasized orglossed-over differs greatly from one culture to another. Let usproceed chronologically, moving from what the Egyptian textsreveal about the construction of social identity in Ancient Egyptto the imaginative recreations of that identity in later Jewishand Muslim texts.

Contacts and Barriers: The Egyptian Background

1) Dress and General Appearance

A. S. Yahuda points out that:

In the eyes of Semitic people the beard was a mark of

dignity, long hair an ornament on warriors and heroes, and only prisoners and slaves were shaved as sign of humiliation and dishonor. The Egyptians had an exactly opposite view, and the first thing every Egyptian of better62 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles ofMen

upbringing was anxious to do. as soon as he came of

age, was to deliver his head and face to the razor of the barber. He only grew beard and hair when mourning for a near relative. Thus Joseph wanted to appear before Pharaoh not as a barbartan and in foreign garb, but as a dressed and well-shaven perfect Egyptian gentleman.8

In Egyptian art the Egyptians are always neatly dressed and

shaven while the Asiatics are hairy and somewhat slovenly:

We encounter these Semitic "barbartans" everywhere

on the Egyptian monuments, and we are never left in doubt as to how completely foreign and outlandish in dress and appearance they were regarded by the Egyp- tians...The inhabitants of the Nile Valley were accustomed to shave their hair and wear wigs, but the foreigners permitted their hair and beards to grow long. In fact, their hair fell in thick masses around the back of their heads as low as the neck and was usually confined by a sort of fillet above the forehead: and their yellowish brown faces were framed by heavy dark beards which ended in a point beneath the chin.9

The Egyptian disdain for the hairy Asiatic is expressed ortho-

graphically in the hieroglyphic determinative of the word nwn,meaning to be disheveled, which is a standing figure with twoflying locks.10 In contrast the Semitic ideal was that long lockswere a sign of the great warrior. Thus, Judges 5:2, has beentranslated, as supported by some of the Septuagint manu-scripts, "When long locks of hair were worn loose by warriors inIsrael. "11 This ideal of the longhaired warrior both antecedesBiblical Israel and extends beyond its borders. "Long hair wasassociated with heroic strength .. .It is interesting to note thatprecisely during the epic age of Israel. long hair was a feature ofthe heroic male." 12 Parallels may be found in Mesopotamian,Greek, Cretan, and Egyptian representations of warriors. Some find vestiges or echoes of this practice in reports of lifeamong the Bedouin in the past centwy. In his Travels in ArabiaDeserta, Doughty remarks that:

Seldom or never have the nomad women very long

hair, and it is not thick. Side locks are worn by men at The Egyptian Background of the Joseph Story 63

their natural length: so it is said in praise of a young

man's fortunate beauty "he has great and long horns" ... The Bedouins say. commending a prince "It is a fair young man. he has goodly horns," Elder men at length renounce this ornament of their regretted youth... 13

The importance, for the Egyptians, of socially appropriate hair

and dress is highlighted in the story of Sinuhe. When Sinuhereturns from his Asiatic exile, we are told that:

The King received him well and summoned the

Queen and the royal children. When they came into the court and saw Sinuhe, about whom they had heard so much, they screamed on seeing him clad like an Asiatic. They could not believe that the person before them was Sinuhe, but the King assured them that it was he. Then Sinuhe was clad in fine linen, perfumed, shaved and given an estate and royal support. 14

The romance of Sinuhe provides us with a context in which

we can understand the ceremony in which Joseph is designated"second to the King."

Pharaoh further said to Joseph. "See, I put you in

charge of all the land of Egypt." And removing his signet ring from his hand, Pharaoh put it on Joseph's hand; and he had him dressed in robes of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck. (Genesis 41:41-42)

This is similar to "Sinuhe's elevation in rank together with royal

gifts of robes and other honors." 152)Language In Genesis 42:23 Joseph has a translator act as an inter-mediary between himself and his brothers. Though this was aruse on his part, for he understood the language of his brothers.it does indicate that the Egyptians needed the services of atranslator in order to communicate with foreigners. The term fortranslator, melitz, is a rare Biblical word. It occurs only once inthe Pentateuch. In the three other times that it occurs in theBible (Isaiah 43:27. Job 33:23, II Chronicles 32:31) it has the64 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

sense of intermediartes, or emissartes. 16 That the word means

"translator" in Genesis 42:23 is indicated by internal evidence. Ifwe translate this verse "And they did not know that Josephheard (sham'a) and the interpreter was between them," andposition it in its Egyptian setting, sham'a can only mean "under-stand," "comprehend," and not merely "hear." As A. S . Yahudanoted:

At the beginning of his conversation with Joseph,

Pharaoh says: "I have dreamed and there is none that can interpret it; but I have heard say of thee that thou understandest a dream to interpret it." For "understand" the Hebrew has "to hear": "thou hearest a dream". This corresponds entirely to the Egyptian use of sdm "to hear" = "to understand," a meaning which is most clearly shown by its use in the phrase, Sinuhe 3lf.: sdm.k r' n km.t: "thou hearest the mouth of Egypt" Le., "thou understandeth the language of Egypt, or in Wen- Amon," 77: iw.f sdm md.t km.t: "he hears the speech of Egypt," Le., he understands the language. Likewise in Genesis 42.23 "hear" stands for understanding the lan- guage, exactly as in Egyptian. 17

Such linguistic isolationism was to be expected, as the Egyp-

... the hieroglyphic script. was a medium of communi-

cation developed specifically for the use of the tongue spoken in Egypt. and it was incapable of adaption to the requirements of other languages ...the methods devel- oped in the earliest times remained, in general terms, satisfactoxy for the needs of the Egyptian people and over the centuries required only the modifications resulting from natural development within a fairly closed culture. This self-sufficiency, which amounted almost to a sort of cultural stagnation. is well demonstrated in the matter of writing... 18

There were periodic exceptions to this linguistic isolationism.

One exception that would dovetail nicely with the details of theJoseph stoxy is the period known to modern scholars as the The Egyptian Background of the Joseph Story 65

Amarna Age the era of cultural, religious and political ferment of

the fourteenth century B.C.E. In the Amarna Age we do fmd theEgyptians using Akkadian, the Mesopotamian language thatwas the lingua franca of the period. To this period belong muchof what we in the West fmd most attractive in Ancient Egyptianculture: the artifacts in the tomb of Tutankhamen, the exoticbeauty and mystery of his wife Nefertiti, and the strikinglymodern artistic and religious sensibilities of the reign of hiskinsman Akhenaten. The Amarna Age's appeal to Americans issummed up in James Henry Breasted's description of the"heretic pharaoh" Akhenaten as "the frrst individual in history." In contrast to the Amarna Age, during other periods theEgyptians would insist on communicating with outsiders in thelanguage of Egypt. The new attitude towards other languageswas part of the "Amarna revolution" in which Egypt emergedfrom its cultural isolationism.

The changed was thoroughgoing. Art was revolu-

lionized as well as religion. with the breaking down of old canons, and the introduction of new trends. Modernistic realism and distortion suddenly appear in the art of what had been the world's most conservative country. 19

3) Dietary Restrictions The two social barriers that the Bible describes as Egyptianprohibitions against contact with outsiders were the Egyptians'distaste for eating with foreigners, and their aversion to asso-ciating with shepherds. In both cases, the Bible uses the wordtdevah indicating abomination or abhorrence. There are directBiblical references to these aversions. "For Egyptians could notdine with the Hebrews, since that would be abhorrent to theEgyptians." (Genesis 43:32) And "For all shepherds are abhor-rent to Egyptians." (Genesis 46:33) If we examine the use of tdevah in the Old Testament, wefind that it has both a ritual sense: e.g., idolatry, child sacrifice,witchcraft; and an ethical sense: it is used to denote the sacri-fices of a wicked person, or to condemn unchastity. 20 TheHebrews are enjoined from participating in any activity of theto'evah category. The injunction to avoid acts of the tdevah category is seenas separating Israel from the nations (e.g., Deuteronomy 13:14-15: "that abhorrent thing was perpetrated in your midst").2166 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

Unique to the two aforementioned citations in Genesis is that

they display a remarkable degree of cultural relativism, and theystand in contrast to the Bible's usual condemnation of Egyptianpractices. For in Genesis tdevah is used to describe the Egyptianaversion to things Hebrew and not the Hebrew aversion toEgyptian, or any other nation's objectionable practices. Both theaversion to eating with the Hebrews and to associating withshepherds may be compared with Herodotus' report of theEgyptians, which affirms that:

The pig is regarded among them as an unclean

animal ...hence, too, the swineherds, notwithstanding that they are of pure Egyptian blood, are forbidden to enter into any of the temples, which are open to all other Egyptians, and further, no one will give his daughter in marriage to a swineherd, or take a wife from among them, so that the swineherds are forced to intermarry among themselves. 22

4) Means of Earning a Livelihood: The Aversion to Shepherds

Genesis 46:33-34 indicates that Jacob's sons counted on anegative response to their announcement that the family sup-ported itself by herding sheep. On Jacob's counsel they usedthat anticipated response to ensure that the Pharaoh wouldgrant them Goshen, a land rich in grazing areas. In explainingwhy "all shepherds are abhorent to Egyptians," Rashi states thatthis was because sheep were considered divine by the Egyptians.1bis understanding of the aversion to the Hebrews as shepherdsis paralleled in the Greek understanding of the Egyptian aversionto keepers of cattle. Describing the cult of the Egyptian temples,Herodotus notes that:

The male kine, therefore. if clean, and the male

calves. are used for sacrifice by the Egyptians univer- sally; but the females they are not allowed to sacrifice, since they are sacred to Isis. The statue of this goddess has the form of a woman but with horns like a cow, resembling thus the Greek representation of Io; and the Egyptians. one and all, venerate cows much more highly than any other animal. This is the reason why no native of Egypt. whether man or woman. will give a Greek a The Egyptian Background of the Joseph Story 67

kiss, or use the knife of a Greek, or his spit, or his

cauldron or taste the flesh of an ox, known to be pure, if it has been cut with a Greek knife. 23

In both reports we see that among the Egyptians the vener-

ation of, or aversion to, a specific animal extends to anyone whomay have touched or consumed this animal. Against this back-ground, the two taboos, eating with the Hebrews and asso-ciating with shepherds, can be seen as related: the aversion tosheep, "a reflection of the age-old fear and hatred the Egyptiansentertained for the beduoin of the desert,"24 is extended to anycontact with shepherds, including the act of sitting down to eatwith them. The connection between the two prohibitions, between eatingwith foreigners and associating with shepherds, is implied by thedescription of both as tdevah. In the Biblical text's choice of theterm, A. S. Yahuda sees a deliberate use of an Egyptianism:

The conception of something being an "abomination"

bw.t which is expressed in Hebrew by toevah, especially in connection with Egypt, e.g., Genesis 43:32, "for it was an abomination to the Egyptians" (to eat with Hebrews): or 46:34, said of the shepherds as "an abomination to Egypt," or Exodus 8:26, of the cattle sacrifices, is typi- cally Egyptian. It occurs profusely in both sacred and profane literature of all epochs and is an expression of loathing and strong abhorrence against everything disgusting, repugnant or execrable. 25

It is of note that three out of four social barriers (the matter

of dressing and shaving for the Pharaoh is a mark of Joseph'stransition from Hebrew slave to Egyptian noble) are mentionedafter Joseph's brothers descend into Egypt. For the reader of theBiblical story, this highlights the ease with which Joseph hadbecome an Egyptian, and the ease of his transition to a newidentity is sharply contrasted with the difficulty that his lesspolished brothers encountered. For some critics the mention of these social barriers at apoint late in the story serves a structural function, it is not anindication that the Egyptians actually were bound by thesetaboos:68 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

The Biblical author enters into some detail in pre-

senting the Egyptian setting of the story in an attempt to provide verisimilitude for his work.. .In a few instances however, with regard to the author's notice about Egyp- tian distaste for shepherds and their unwillingness to dine with Hebrews, he moves beyond the verifiable and even the plausible in the service of a good story. These notices serve a narrative function. allowing the brothers to be alone with Joseph at a critical moment and per- mitting their settlement in Goshen. and. they contribute to a sense of wonder at the strange land ofEgypt.26

One verse that we have cited as evidence of a social barrier,

that the Egyptians could not dine with the Hebrews (Genesis43:32), also serves as a reminder of another widespread, butoften unrecognized, social institution of Biblical Israel, fratri-archy, the exercise of authority by one sibling over others. Forthe following verse tells us, "And as the men took their seats athis direction, the oldest in the order of his seniority and theyoungest in the order of his youth, they gazed at one another inastonishment." (Genesis 43:33). Cyrus Gordon notes that"... fratriarchal organiZation was widespread throughout theEast, including Israel, "27 and he cites our verse as a reference to."fratriarchal etiquette whereby brothers at a banquet are seatedin order of seniority."28 This verse's somewhat oblique referenceto fratriarchy, is one illustration of the observation that 'TheBiblical narratives give us casual glimpses of fratriarchalauthority.''29 Joseph's troubled relationship with his brothers was onlyone aspect of the complex family dynamic operating amongJacob's children. At different points in the Patriarchal narratives,Reuben, Jacob's first born. and Judah the fourth son, assumeleadership positions. With the descent of the family into Egypt,Joseph. one of the two youngest sons, assumes the leadership ofthe family. And in one sense, he becomes the "eldest" son,assuming authority in all the brothers' affairs. "Joseph providedthe family with property and provisions upon their arrivat inEgypt, and functioned as their fratriarch until his death."30 If we use the fratriarchal model to understand Joseph'sactions at the banquet with his brothers. we gain further insightinto the structure of the Joseph narratives as a whole. For the The Egyptian Background of the Joseph Story 69

power struggle between the brothers, a struggle that was inter-

rupted, but not concluded. with Joseph's descent into Egypt,again comes to the fore when the brothers are reunited:

No one who reads the Joseph story can help but be

struck by the symmetry of the plot. Settings and roles appearing in the development are duplicated with subtle contrasts in the resolution [the scene in Chapter 45 is at once the duplicate and the contrast to the scene at Dothan in Chapter 37) ...The last time Joseph was alone with his brothers he was a weak powerless lad, and they tore his clothes off and threw him into a pit to die. Now. the first time they meet with him alone since that day long ago at Dothan, the situation is completely reversed. They are the destitute, he the powerful.31

By seating his brothers, "the oldest in the order of his

seniority and the youngest in the order of his youth" Joseph islegitimizing the proper fratriarchal order. He is reversing hisimplied threat to usurp power in the family, and thus thisverse becomes the symmetrical response to the fear that thebrothers expressed in their youth, "Do you propose, the brothersasked him, to rule over us? Are you to be our master?" (Genesis37:8)

Contact s and Barriers: In J ewish Legend

There are two opposing tendencies at work in the inter-

pretations that the Rabbinic exegetes and Aggadists give to thefour social barriers. One is the tendency to elaborate upon thebehavior of the Egyptians. to embellish the terse Biblical reportswith details that make the tales even more Egyptian and thusmore "authentic." The other tendency is to "de-Egyptianize" thematerial and depict the behavior of Joseph and his brothers in amanner more acceptable to the norms of Rabbinic Judaism.Both of these tendencies are at work in the legends concerningthe most striking cultural interaction of the story, Joseph's mar-riage to Asenath, daughter of the Priest of On. We will discussAsenath in chapter V. but let us note now that some of theRabbis deny Asenath's Egyptian parentage. They imagine her asthe abducted daughter of Dinah, daughter of Jacob and Leah.70 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

Joseph is thus freed from the obliquity of having an Egyptian

wife, a situation unacceptable to the Rabbis. But in describingAsenath's alleged abduction and upbringing in the house ofPotiphera. the Aggadists filled the legends with details that theyconsidered "Egyptian": Asenath is carried to Egypt by a hawk, abird associated with Egypt, she is placed by that bird on thealtar of On at which Potiphera officiates, and she adoptsEgyptian manners and speech. 32 As Louis Ginzberg noted in his seminal essay on "TheSignificance of the Halakhah for Jewish Histocy," "the Aggadahis the handmaiden of the Halakhah." In this traditional view thestories found in Rabbinic literature are far less important thanthe legal material in which these stories are often embedded.And throughout his voluminous work on Jewish legendsGinzberg emphasized that "it was not possible to understandJewish histocy and culture without a thorough knowledge ofha1akhah. "33 In constructing elaborations of Biblical narrativethe factor that determined for the Rabbis when any one inter-pretive approach was to dominate was the legal implication ofthe legend at hand. To uphold the prohibition against marcymgnon-Jewish women the Egyptian ancestcy of Asenath has to bedenied. In our discussion of Asenath we will see that this "exe-getical management" (to borrow Reuven Firestone's phrase)demanded considerable work on the part of the Rabbis. But thisdid not obviate the literacy impulse to make Asenath's stacyeven more "authentically" Egyptian, especially when suchembellishment did not clash with rabbinic norms of behavior. As we look at representative commentaries and legendsabout the four social "barriers" we will see that these opposingtendencies. the legalistic and the literary. rather than detractingfrom the richness of the aggadot. make them even more com-plex and appealing. The tension between the need to emphasizeJewish separateness and the impusle to authenticate an exotictale added to the complexity and texture of the compositeJoseph legends.1) Dress and General Appearance We read in Genesis Rabbah, 'They brought him hastily outof the dungeon, but first Joseph. out of respect to the King,shaved himself, and put on fresh rainment, which an angelbrought him from paradise. and then he came in to Pharaoh."34 The Egyptian Background of the Joseph Story 71

The haste alluded to by the Aggadist is no doubt a conclusion

drawn from the terse style of 41:14. "''bereupon Pharaoh sentfor Joseph, and he was rushed from the dungeon. He had hishair cut and changed his clothes, and he appeared beforePharoah." As Donald Redford noted:

When the physical action itself is speeded up the

writer can suit his syntax to the requirements of the new speed.. .In the succession of six converted imper- fects in 41: 14 the reader easily senses the haste and excitement which attends the summoning of Joseph by Pharaoh. When the verse begins Joseph is in prison, ignorant of what has been transpiring at court. Then follows verse 14, and after fourteen words he has run the gamut from the most miserable surroundings to the most sumptuous court in the land.35

The Talmud further dramatizes Joseph's appearance on his

release from prison. It was, no doubt, festive, for all of theevents that are compressed into this verse took place on RoshHashanah. Other sources add that, "It was on this same daythat Joseph's grandfather Isaac died. Joseph's joy was thereforemixed with sadness."362) Language: We have seen that the linguistic isolation of Egypt is thebackground against which we can best understand the text'scontention that, "there was a translator among them." OneMidrash is more specific, it tells us who the translator was. Itwas Joseph's son Manasseh.3 7 As Manasseh was the elder son and had grown up in Egypt(and at the same time it was assumed that he learnt Hebrewfrom his father) he was an apt choice for the role of inter-mediacy. From the Biblical text, the reader knows that Josephcan understand his brothers' deliberations. We know he under-stands Hebrew. though his brothers do not realize this. Laterelaborations describe Joseph as master of all languages. Heretoo we have an expansion of a reference in the Bible to folkloricproportions; a popular Midrash relates that "Joseph knew allthe languages of mankind," some sources say that he knew allseventy languages of the earth.72 'The Wiles of Women/ 'The Wiles of Men

3) Dietary Restrtctions Commenting on Genesis 43:32, ('They sexved him by himself,and them by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with himby themselves) Midrash Tanhuma relates:

The table was set in three divisions: for Joseph, for

his brethren, and for the Egyptians. The sons of Jacob had not ventured to eat of the dishes set before them; they were afraid that they might not have been prepared according to the ritual prescriptions.

In this Midrash, the Hebrew aversion to eating with the

Egyptians was a matter of following the laws of Kashrut.Onkelos. the second century c.E. translator of the Bible intoAramaic, comments:

The Egyptians, again could not sit at the same table

with the sons of Jacob, because the latter ate the flesh of cattle to which the former paid divine worship. 38

With these elaborations Onkelos has changed the episode

from one in which the Egyptians are protecting their culturalisolation into a tale of mutual aversio~ each group is prohibitedfrom dining with the other. The Hebrews must follow theirdietary laws, the Egyptians had to follow their own. Rashi highlights the Egyptian aversion and mentions that"Onkelos has given an explanation for the phrase: "since that isloathsome": it is despicable to the Egyptians to eat with theHebrews. "39 The Rabbinic insight that the Egyptians' behaviormight be explained by the cultic sanctity of certain animals alsoextends to their explanation of the aversion to shepherds. Wehave noted Rashi's comment on Genesis 46:34: "For sheep werea divinity to the Egyptians." Ibn Ezra, the twelfth centuryexegete famous for his naturalistic explanations, has this to sayon Genesis 46:34:

"For every shepherd is abhorrent to the Egyptians":

This indicates that in those days the Egyptians did not eat meat. And they did not associate with anyone who sacrificed sheep, as is the case today with the people of India. And he who is a shepherd is abhorrent for he The Egyptian Background of the Joseph Stoxy 73

chinks the milk. To this day, the people of India neither

eat nor drink anything that derives from a sentient being.40

In this remarkable excursus on comparative religion, Ibn

Ezra ties together both of our "taboos," implying that the aver-sions to eating with the Hebrews and the prohibition againstassociating with shepherds are both functions of the Egyptianrefusal to eat the flesh of animals. And he notes that this aver-sion should not surprise the reader, for the people of India havesimilar rules. In these representative selections of Rabbinic interpretationof the social barriers separating Egyptians and Hebrews, we cansee both the recognition of another nation's taboos, and theRabbi's understanding of Jewish dietaxy prohibitions as con-structed to enforce the separateness of the Jews. For theselegends are a reflex of the Rabbinic legal codes and are therefore"handmaidens of the law." In our discussion of related Islamiclegends we shall find both parallels and divergences from thispattern of what we might call legalistically determined folklore,folklore that uses "exegetical management" to bring a scripturalstoxy into line with the norms oflaw.

Contact and Barriers: Ancient Egypt in the

Quran and Islamic Legend

Unlike Genesis 37-50, the Qur'an does not concern itself

with the Egyptian background of the Joseph stoxy. More impor-tant to the Qur'anic retelling is the didactic force of the tale.This didactic intent distinguishes Qur'antc tales as a genre.Commenting upon Sllrat YIJsuf, a contemporaxy Muslim authorstates that:

...and the whole of this Surah might be described as a

series of variations on the theme 'judgement as to what happens rests with none but God," explicitly enunciated only in verse 67 of Sllrat YIJsuf, but running like an un- spoken leitmotif throughout the stoxy of Joseph. 41

Egypt (Misrj is mentioned only twice in Sura 12. In verse 21,

"And the man from Egypt who brought him," and in verse 99,74 The Wiles of Women/The Wiles of Men

when Joseph greets his family thus: "Enter Egypt! If God so

wills. you shall be secure." In the report of the King's dreams, he is called only "the king"and not the "Pharaoh"-although elsewhere in the Qur'an wefind the termjitawn. used for the Pharaoh of the oppression.42 Consistent with this lack of Egyptian background is theabsence of any reference to the social barriers discussed above.Where we do find mention of them is in the commentaries onthe Qur'an and in the collections of Islamic legends.1) Dress Al-Tha'labl relates that on the day that Yiisuf was releasedfrom prison he bathed, put on new clothes and went to see thePharoah. Before he walked out of the jail he wrote the followinginscription on the wall: "This is the tomb of the living and theabode of sorrows. This place is a test of the faith of the friends ofGod. and my experience here will make my enemies rejoice. "43 Inaccord with the Biblical account. al-Tha'labi has Joseph prepareto meet the king. Such preparation is to be expected of a com-moner who is about to enter the presence of royalty. No mentionis made of Joseph cutting his hair. a detail that has import onlyin the Ancient Egyptian context. and one that may have foundan echo in the Genesis account. Al-Tha'labi's account of Joseph's release from jail, whichincludes a transcription of Joseph's writing on the prison wall,had its counterpart in medieval Egyptian Islamic folkways. Theimpulse to identify the sacred places of scripture manifesteditself in an attempt to identify the site of Yiisufs prison. TheEgyptian historian al-Maqiizf (d. 1442) notes that 'The knowl-edgeable are unanimous in their opinion that Yiisufs prisonwas in the area of Giza. As the prophet Yiisuf received revelationthere it is a place where prayers are answered." al-Maqiizf, tovalidate his claim that Giza is the authentic site of the prison,quotes a fascinating account by the eleventh century historianal-Musabbfl}f. This account tells of a yearly pilgrimage toYiisufs jail (syn yiisufl. This took place in the early summer. andin the year that al-Musabbil}f writes of. 1024, the Caliph a-Zahir participated in the festivities of this pilgrimage. whichextended over a two week period. These included storytelling, aprocession. and a performance of shadow-plays. The processionwas so large that "for all practical purposes it shut down the The Egyptian Background of the Joseph Story 75

regular business of Cairo, for the populace would flock to the

markets to see the procession and watch the performers."Despite the raucous nature of the festivities, the more pietisticaspects of pilgrimage were not forgotten . Al-Maqrizi. inrecounting the history of the site and its associated festivitiesand rituals, quotes a contemporary sage who said that "if a manjourneyed from Iraq to Egypt only in order to see YU.sufs prisonand pray in it, I would have scolded him. "442) Language Prepared to meet the king, Joseph enters the royal pre-sence. As al-Tha'lab1 tells it YU.suf addressed the Egyptian rulerin Arabic. "Which language is that?" said the king. "It is the lan-guage of Ishmael my uncle." YU.suf then spoke in Hebrew, andin answer to the king's query said, "this iS the language of myfather Jacob." Wahb ibn Munabbfh said that the king knewseventy languages. Each time YU.suf spoke in a language theking responded in kind. Acknowledging Ytlsufs mastery oflanguages, the king admitted that even his own priests andmagicians were not so knowledgeable. Neither in this case. nor in his later encounter with hisbrothers, is any mention made of the presence of a translator, afigure who appears in Genesis. Both the king, in his capacity asruler and diplomat, and Joseph, as a prophet predestined forthis role, know "seventy" languages. 45 In this Islamic retelling, when Joseph's brothers come downinto Egypt, he communicates with them without a translator.They address him in Hebrew and he asks them to tell theirstory. "We are people of Syria," they say. "we are tired. and havecome for food. "463) Dietary Restrictions We have seen that the Egyptian aversion to eating with theHebrews was taken by some Rabbinic commentaries to have acultic meaning related to Ancient Egyptian beliefs. Islamic legendpreserves the reference to the aversion, but it sees it as an indi-cator of the need to maintain social distinctions, not religiousbarriers. When the Pharaoh recognizes YU.sufs abilities he makeshim a member of the court. but does not want the Hebrew to eatwith him. YU.suf counters this insult by celebrating his ancestry:"I am the descendant of Abraham. Isaac, and Jacob. In truth Ishould not lower myself to eat with you."4776 The Wiles of Women/The Wiles of Men

YU8uf here overcomes a social barrier by using his wit. In

effect he is saying to the king: as a member of the aristocracy Ishould be prevented from eating with you, but I will overcomemy aversion if you overcome yours. Here we have a concept similar to that expressed in some ofthe above-mentioned Rabbinic legends about the eating prohi-bition. Both parties feel that they cannot sit down to eat withthe other, and each for their own reasons. In al-Tha'labl'sversion, YU8uf, on his rise to power, is able to present himself insuch a way that he can sit down with the king. Yusufsinvocation of his lineage hearkens back to the notion of anAncient Near Eastern "ecumene," a social order in which allmembers of the higher strata of society, whatever their countiyof origin, were on an equal footing.48 In our case study of representative elements in the Josephstory we have seen how extensively the Ancient Egyptian back-ground pervades the tale in both Jewish and Islamic legends. Inboth scripture and legend, daily life is described in exhaustivedetail; the portrayal of the Egyptian tendency to stay aloof fromforeigners lends an authentic tone to this tale of foreignerstrying to make their way in an alien and hostile land. As ayoung Hebrew in Egypt, Joseph is forced to adjust quickly to hisnew situation. Potiphar's wife, sorely tempted by the presence ofthe young man, fails to comply with her society's norms. Whatwas it about Joseph that proved so irresistible? The followingchapter will attempt to answer that question.Zuleikha Pursues Joseph 4

A Portrait of Joseph

"Extolled is the perfection of Him who has made thee a

temptation to all creatures." (The Thousand and One Nights) (c. 1400)

Joseph's Beauty: The Detalls

Genesis 39:6 tells us that Joseph was "well built and hand-some."1 That the text speaks of Joseph's physical beauty isbeyond doubt; his attractiveness to women is the pivot on whichthe upcoming narrative turns. 2 This description of Joseph asbeautiful is artfully placed; it follows the announcement of hisappointment as manager of Potiphar's household and precedes(and thus explains) the precipitous actions of Potiphar's wife. Sura 12 vividly dramatizes Ytlsufs beauty. In the Qur'an,not only the Egyptian's wife, but her companions, the "womenof the city," are smitten with the young man. Invited by Poti-phar's wife to attend a banquet at which she plans to haveJoseph appear, each woman is given a knife and some fruit.When they see Joseph "they so admired him that they cut theirhands, saying This is no mortal; he is no other but a nobleangel.'" Legends in both the Jewish and the Islamic traditionsembellish the handsomeness of Joseph and seem to outdo eachother in extolling the uniqueness of his appearance and itscompelling appeal. Though other attributes of Joseph are em-phasized in these legends (his intelligence, piety, chastity) it ishis handsomeness that is most often highlighted. 3 This is anappropriate characteristic to emphasize in a narrative whichreflects the values of an heroic age, an age in which heroes,both male and female, were often depicted as beautiful. In con-80 The Wiles of Women/The Wiles of Men

trast. Min spiritual or pietistic literature, virtue, but not beauty is

stressed. Thus Rabbis or Church Fathers are not singled out asbeautiful."4 Though there are some exceptions to this rule, onethinks of the few Rabbis singled out in the Talmud as "hand-some" or Mbeautiful," it is generally true that in later religiousliterature good works are a greater spiritual asset than goodlooks. In the Bible yajeh/yajah (beautiful), is a term used mostoften to describe women; occasionally, it is used to describemen. 5 The term is applied to eight women and only three men:Joseph, David, and Absalom.6 In the Song of Songs, the female-male ratio is even greater; the term is used eight times to des-cribe a woman and only once to defme a man. The adjectiveyajeh/ yajah may be used in a general sense, to describe thepleasing effect of a person's appearance, or it may be applied toa specific feature. The eyes are often singled out. Of David wefmd, Mof beautiful eyes" (I Samuel 16: 12); of the Shulamite weread, MBehold, thou art fair, my love; Behold thou art fair; Thineeyes are as doves" (Song of Songs 4: 1). In Israel's pre-monarchic Heroic period the Biblical historianmakes note of a character's beauty. In later periods, with thenotable exception of the Book of Esther, less attention is drawnto the purely physical. As the culmination and fulflllment of thepatriarchal genealogy, Joseph is cast in the mold of the beauti-ful, semi-divine hero. The antecedents of the Joseph figure inthe development of Potiphar's Wife motif, Bellerophon and Bataof Homeric and Ancient Egyptian myth, were both blessed withgreat beauty. 7 In this respect Joseph displays affinities withanother figure of Near Eastern myth. Gilgamesh. Like Gilga-mesh, Joseph rules as a king; it is only the official designationof kingship that is withheld from him (Genesis 41:40). And, likeGilgamesh, he is provider to his people, and dreamer of pro-phetic dreams. E. A. Speiser points out that the phrase used todescribe Potiphar's wife's obsession with the Hebrew slave, "Hismaster's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph" (Genesis 39:7) issimilar to the phrase used to describe the goddess Ishtar'sdesigns on Gilgamesh.8 Gilgamesh is praised as two-thirdsdivine and one-third human, and this motif reverberates in aMidrash that portrays Joseph as possessing, "... two-thirds ofthe beauty of mankind. "9 AI-Tha'labf. quoting Wahb ibnMunabbih, the early Muslim storyteller who was a convert from APonUcUtofJoseph 81

Judaism, tells us that Yusuf had nine-tenths of the world's

beauty . 10 It is as if there is competition within the folkloricmaterial, and each author attempts to outdo the other in extollingJoseph's charms. Such grand statements about a character's physical attrac-tiveness are unsatisfYing unless they are accompanied by des-criptive detail. The reader might well ask, "in what way wasJoseph 'well built and handsome' or 'handsome of figure andfeatures?'" And where did these good looks come from? Did theyappear suddenly in the family or were they inherited? Theanswers to these questions may be found in the Biblical text andits attendant Midrashim. The phrase used to describe Joseph isalso used of his mother Rachel-she too is "beautiful of form"(Genesis 29: 17)-the Aggadists concluded that Joseph inheritedhis mother's beauty; therefore he both resembled her and washer equal in beauty. 11 Muslim authorities, al-Tha'labi amongthem, also make this connection to Rachel. Other Midrashimtrace Joseph's handsomeness to his father Jacob. One sourcerelates that Joseph resembled his father both in the beauty ofhis appearance and in having been born circumcised. 12 The Qur'an, in contrast to the Bible, does not mentionJoseph's beauty in connection with his master's wife. In Sura12 the seduction attempt is preceded by a different narrativelink and by a didactic exhortation.

And when he was fully grown, we gave him judgment

and knowledge. Even so we recompense the good-doers. Now the woman in whose house he was solicited him ...

But. after her failed attempt at seduction, when Ra'il (or

"Zuleikha"), in desperation, invites her female friends to that"bloody banquet" her physical attraction to him is underscoredby her friends' excitement and exclamations. Now that they toohave seen Joseph's beauty she can exclaim "So now you see.This is he who you blamed me for." In elaborating upon thisepisode, the Qur'aruc commentators and the Muslim folkloreanthologists do speak of Yusufs physical attractiveness, and intheir descriptions we have a fusion of the spiritual and the phy-sical. Razi notes that "when Yusuf walked through the streets ofEgypt, the reflections from his face shone on the walls likesunlight lighting up the sky." 13 The historian al-'}abarl {d. 923), is82 The Wiles of Women/The Wiles of Men

most extravagant in praise of Joseph's beauty. He opens his nar-

ration of Joseph's history with this phrase: "Jacob's son Josephhad, like his mother, more beauty than any other human being." Al-Tha'lab1 elaborates upon this genealogy of good looks,tracing the family's beauty through Isaac/lsl;aq and his motherSarah. Sarah inherited her beauty from her grandmother, I:Jawa,or Eve, and we can now think of this as the Ur-beauty, the God-bestowed splendor of the "mother of all flesh." 14 Sarah's beauty,alluded to a number of times in Genesis (in Genesis 12 and 20her beauty attracts the attentions of the local King), is elaboratedupon in one of the prototypes of early Midrash, The GenesisApocryphon of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Jewish sources emphasize the power and depth of Joseph'seyes, "Your eyes are so beautiful, you have enchanted with themall men and women of Egypt."15 We have noted that in I SamuelDavid's eyes were singled out for their beauty. Elsewhere in theBible eyes are seen as a source of sexual power, "Turn awaythine eyes from me, For they have overcome me" (Song of Songs6:5). Though Joseph's eyes were naturally beautiful he insistedon beautifying them further by applying makeup. And thiswasn't the only artifice that he employed. An early Midrash tellsus that Joseph's beauty did not go unadorned: it was the resultof both artifice and natural endowment. In addition to wearingkohl around the eyes, he wore the ancient equivalent of highheels and elaborately dressed his hair. 16 Islamic sources praise Yusufs face. It is often compared tothe moon. As we noted in our discussion of the depiction ofJoseph's beauty in the earlier Mediterranean "versions," des-criptions to this effect are found in the accounts, both in proseand poetry. of Mul)ammad's "night journey"-the mtraj. hisascension to heaven. This followed the isrd, the journey "fromthe sacred mosque to the farthest mosque" that is described insura 17 of the Qur'an. On the mi'rqj, Gabriel takes the Prophetthrough the seven heavens. In each heaven they meet one of theearlier messengers of God. In al-Tha'labi's account, Mu1;ammadis astounded by Yusufs beauty and asks Gabriel "Who is that?" 'That is Yusuf... and his appearance was like that of the full moon." In the Sirah, the early biography of Mul;ammad. theProphet meets Yusuf in the third heaven: "And there was a manwhose face was as the moon at full. This was my brotherJoseph son of Jacob." 17 We have also seen that Mul;ammad'sfather, 'AbdAllah, was "for beauty, the Joseph of his times." A Portrait of Joseph 83

A later poetic account of Joseph echoes these descrtptions.

In an anonymous thirteenth centwy poem we read:

The Lord of the Throne had given Joseph an endow-

ment of beauty sufficient to supply the new moon with radiance. 18

In Islamic manuscripts and paintings that illustrate the Tales

of the Prophets literature, Yusuf, in contrast to other prophets,whose portraits tend to resemble each other, has a distinctiveappearance. His portraits often incorporate elements of the divine.In a fifteenth centwy manuscrtpt of the Mirqj Nameh produced inHerat there is a picture of Jacob and Joseph greeting Mu!Jam-mad and Gabriel, "Jacob and Mu!Jammad are portrayed with ovalfaces, beards and mustaches; Gabriel, Joseph and Buraq haveround faces. "19 Joseph is in this way placed in the same categoryas the angel Gabriel and Buraq the supernatural steed of theProphet, for they too have the round faces of the divinelyillumined. A composite portrait of Yllsuf is presented by al-Tha'labi inthe name of Ka'b al-aJ:bar, the eighth centwy Yemenite Jewishconvert to Islam.

Yusuf was light skinned. He had a beautiful face, curly

hair and large eyes. He was of medium build, his arms and legs were muscular, his stomach "hungry" or flat. He had a hooked nose, and a small navel. The black mole on his right cheek was an ornament to his face. and between his eyes there was a spot white as the full moon. His eyelashes were like the feathers of an eagle. and when he smiled the light flashed from his teeth. When Yusuf spoke rays of light beamed from between his lips. No one can (fully) describe Yusuf.

His Effect on His Admirers

What effect does Joseph's beauty have on its beholders?

Though each person in the Joseph narratives (and the subse-quent elaborations) reacts to him differently. they are all deeplyinfluenced or attracted. And this is not a passing infatuation;84 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

his admirers' destinies are changed irrevocably through their

encounter with him. A Midrash tells us that Joseph's resemblance to Rachelhad a powerful effect on his father Jacob and that this resem-blance was, "reason enough for distinguishing him among hischildren. "20 Through his father's love for him the enmity of hisbrothers was aroused. Early on in his life it was Joseph's des-tiny to arouse strong emotions, but not necessarily emotionsof love. Philo saw Jacob as employing psychology to offset thestrength of these feelings. "Jacob sent his sons away for atime, retaining only Joseph with him ... and when he thoughtthat the ill feelings of his sons against Joseph had subsided hesent the latter to enquire after their welfare. "21 When Joseph's beauty fails him, the result is dramatic. TheMidianites paid a low price for such a distinguished youth,because his appearance was affected by the days he spent inthe pit.22 In an Islamic legend told by al-Kisa1. Joseph's beautyis revealed only when the caravan owner, Malik ibn Dhu'r,reaches Egypt with the Hebrew slave that he purchased inCanaan. Upon arrival, Malik said to Joseph, "Boy, get downhere. Take off your shirt and wash in this river." When he hadwashed and performed ablutions with the water, the earth itselfshone from his beauty, and the light of prophethood gleamedfrom his eyes and penetrated the very walls of Egypt, filling theentire country with light."23 In both Jewish and Muslim legends. Potiphar finds therestored and rehabilitated Joseph very attractive, and is willingto pay a very high price for the young man. As we noted inChapter 3, in some legends he finds the young man sexuallydesirable. In Midrash and Biblical commentary, Potiphar'ssexual preference is the subject of much speculation. The ques-tion is related to the meaning of Potiphar's Hebrew title, saris ofPharoah (Genesis 37:36 and 39: 1). While some translators andcommentators take saris to be a title of the nobility, others,including the Septuagint. translate saris as eunuch. GenesisRabbah also understands the term this way. Potiphar aseunuch offered a challenge to the Aggadists and commentatorsand it is worth noting Albright's observation that "while aeunuch may have a whole harem. and is often blessed with hisshare of erotic proclivities (see Juvenal's sixth satire and theArabian Nights) it is at least unusual to fmd a married saris. ''24 A Portrait of Joseph 85

The legend that Potiphar was sexually attracted to Joseph is

also found in the Talmud and is mentioned by Jerome in hisLatin translation of Genesis. 25 It later surfaced in some Jewish and Islamic folklore. In some versions the Egyptian's designs onJoseph were thwarted when the angel Gabriel mutilated Potipharand made him a eunuch. There is, of course, a logical andchronological problem here. Genesis terms Potiphar saris beforehe meets Joseph. How then can the punishment be meted outbefore the crime is committed? "Displaying little regard for thesequence of events, the Midrash takes the "eunuch-hood" of Potiphar as the punishment visited upon the Egyptian for havingpurchased Joseph allegedly for the purpose of sodomy." 26Variations on this theme appear in al-'fctbart and al-ThcrlabL Al-'fclbart adds that Qitfrr (the Potiphar figure in Islamic legend),"was a man who did not have intercourse with women, thoughhis wife Rail was beautiful and tender, and had property and possessions. "27 These circumstances of neglect, coupled withJoseph's irresistible attractiveness, led Potiphar's wife to seekJoseph's attentions. Neither the Bible nor the Qur'an give "Potiphar's wife"/"the Master's wife" a name. Feminist critics note the absence ofwomen's names in other narratives in the Bible. A woman maybe identified through her husband (Noah's wife in Genesis 7:7) or through identification with a place. as in the case of the wisewoman of Abel-beth-maacah (II Samuel 20:14-22), but she isseldom presented in the narrative with her own name. In the case of Potiphar's wife, this strikes both the modern reader. as itstruck the pre-modern exegete, as a serious omission. Various exotic names were suggested by the authors of legends. Poti- phar's wife is named Rail in the accounts of al-'fctbart and al-Tha'labi. Gordon has suggested that Ra'll is a theophoric name that echoes ancient Egyptian and Semitic sources. The name may thus be read as a composite of Re, the Egyptian sun godand El the Semitic deity. Al-Bay<;lawl mentions the name Ra:n and the name Zuleikha. In the Jewish work Sejer Hayashar and in later Persian Islamic folklore, Potiphar's wife is consistently named Zuleikha.28 Al-Kisa1 also calls her Zuleikha and goes so far as to give us her father's name: "Then Potiphar brought Joseph to the palace of Zuleikha, the daughter of Akahira."29 When Zuleikha's attempts at seduction fail, and she is spurned by Joseph, she accuses him of assaulting her. A piquant86 The Wiles ofWomen/The Wiles ofMen

detail of the circumstance of her report to her husband is

provided by Genesis Rabbah: "And it came to pass when hismaster heard..." (39: 19) R. Abbahu said: 'This happened duringcohabitation. "30 This detail is inconsistent with the above-mentioned assertion of conjugal neglect, and it contradicts of thetraditions which portray Potiphar as a eunuch. This serves toremind us that these disparate and often contradictory fragmentsof folkloric elaboration were not conceived of as a discrete andconsistent entity. It is only in the modern period that attemptswere made to blend these tales together. When we read a modernreworking of Jewish legends, such as Ginzberg's Legends of theJews or Bialik and Ravnitsky's The Book of Legends. we expect,and, for the most part, find. internal consistency. 'This tendency isalso evident in Jan Knappert's Islamic Legends: Histories ofHeroes, Saints and Prophets of Islam But this consistency is theresult of the modern anthologist's efforts. When we read the greatmedieval anthologies of legends, both Jewish and Islamic, we findthat the creation of a coherent narrative consistent in its details isnot the anthologist's primary aim. Rather, the editor wants tomake available all authoritative elaborations of the scriptural textunder discussion. An even more surprising twist in the narrative is provided byal-Tha'lab1 and al-Bay<;)awi. They both say that Ytisuf and Ra'ilbecame man and wife after Ylisuf's appointment to the office ofvizier. According to al-Tha'lab1, "At the time of his appointmentRa'il was still a virgin; she later was to bear Ytisuf two sons."31 al-Bayc;Jawl is even more specific, 'These were born to him, fromRa'il, Ephraim and Manasseh, who was the ancestor of Joshuason of Nun and of Rahmah. wife of Job. "32 These Islamic legends may reflect the Bible's assignment toJoseph of Asenath, "daughter of Potiphera priest of On." Formost Jewish exegetes Potiphera is identified with Potiphar, andJoseph thus marries the daughter of the family which he servedas a servant. This is, in J. Robin King's phrase, "an exquisitelyironic victory." In the Islamic tradition. where no Asenath figureis mentioned, legends tell of Joseph marrying Potiphar's wifeafter she had repented of her sins. In some Islamic pietistictexts. and especially in the great poetic epics of Rumi andJam!, Zuleikha's life becomes a paradigm for the power ofrepentance. A Portrait of Joseph 87

Perhaps the most dramatic response to Joseph's beauty is

that of the "women of the city" in Sura 12; they swoon and cuttheir hands when he enters the room in which they are sittingwith Zuleikha. To make their response even more dramaticWahb ibn Munabbih related that there were forty women at thisbanquet and that seven of them died oflonging forJoseph. 33 In Thomas Mann's modern retelling of the episode, he high-lights the power and inevitability of that moment.

This oft-described scene has by some been thought to

be apocryphal and not belonging to the story as it hap- pened. But they are wrong; for it is the truth, and all the probabilities speak for it. We must remember, on the other hand, that this was the most beautiful youth of his time and sphere; on the other, that these were the sharpest little knives that the world has ever seen and we shall understand that the thing could not happen otherwise-I mean with less shedding of blood-than as it actually did. 34

Even the warden of the Egyptian prison is not impervious to

Joseph's charm and good looks. The Targumim and Josephusinterpret Genesis 39:21, "and disposed the chief jailer favorablytoward him" to mean that the warden was taken with Joseph'sbeauty and wisdom. 35 This motif is echoed in Islamic sourceswhere Joseph's fellow prisoners tell him, "We loved you as soonas we saw you."36 The people of Egypt are also taken with Joseph's beauty.Commenting on Genesis 41:43 !bus he was installed over theland of Egypt," the Midrash Hagadol says that. 'The women ofthe nobility looked out of the windows to gaze upon Joseph'sbeauty and they poured down chains upon him, and rings andjewels. that he might but direct his eyes toward them. "37 As wesaw in the previous chapter, adorning the king's favorite withjewelry, especially with gold, is very much in the ancient Egyp- tian tradition of the mid-second millennium. Amarna Age artabounds with the pictorial image of a similar ceremony. and thecustom is also reflected in the written texts of the period.38 For those scholars who date the Joseph story to the Amarna period(fourteenth century B.c.), this Biblical parallel to actual Egyptianceremony is a colorful piece of supporting evidence.88 The Wiles of Women/The Wiles of Men

Elements of His Appeal

In Joseph's appeal to both men and women there is an

element of the androgynous. We have already alluded to thesefeminine aspects and to the observation in both Midrash andqi{n$ al-anbiyd that Joseph inherited his mother's good looks.The smooth, clean-shaven face depicted in Islamic art, and theuse of makeup and elaborate clothes attributed to him in variouslegends, also emphasize the feminine aspect. His masculineappeal is attested to in the story of the "woman of the city." Butan undertone of androgyny informs another Midrash, whichspeaks of the birth of Jacob's children:

"With every tribal ancestor a twin sister was born ...

Abba Halpa the son of Koriah said: An additional twin sister was born with Benjamin. "39

This legend provides an answer to a question which vexed the

Rabbis: who were Jacob's sons to marry when they reachedadulthood? Weren't they surrounded by the Canaanites, whosedaughters were forbidden to them? The ingenious answer: thesons, children of Jacob's two wives and two concubines, wouldmarry their half sisters. According to one version of this Midrash,Benjamin had two twin sisters, while Joseph had none. Theimplication of these legends is that Joseph combined both maleand female characteristics, and therefore there was no need forthe legends to provide him with a twin sister. 40 His destiny wasto be the one son who would grow up in an alien land, andwhen he rose to prominence in that land he married a daughterof the nobility. As a character who has androgynous appeal to both sexes,Joseph became a standard of beauty, both male and female. InThe Thousand and One Nights, where Joseph's beauty is oftenextolled, a woman is described as being, ":as beautiful as Yusufin form."41 In another tale in the collection, a man is praised in asimilar fashion. The Thousand and One Nights epitomizes thisview of Joseph's beauty in the following phrase, which couldserve as an epigram for all of the Joseph narratives, "Extolled isthe perfection of Him who has made thee a temptation to allcreatures. "42 A Portrait of Joseph 89

The "misfortune of love," is a persistent theme in both the

Jewish and Islamic Joseph legends. Joseph is aware that ador-ation and infatuation have their price:

Love has caused me a great suffering; my father's

love brought upon me my brethren's hatred, which resulted in my being sold as a slave; the love of Potiphar's wife for me lodged me in prison."43

An Islamic evocation of this theme is quoted in 'p.lbari's

Qur'fulic commentary.

Yusuf has arrived in prison and his fellow prisoners

shower him with affection. He turns to them and says "By God, don't love me, for every time someone has loved me it has caused me misfortune. My aunt loved me, and only misfortune followed. The same was true of my father, and of my master's wife. So please don't love me." But the prisoners refused his request, "for they wanted his companionship and his wisdom. "44

The aunt who loved him, a situation that appears only in

Islamic sources, was an unnamed aunt of Jacob's who cared forYU.Suf after his mother's death. She grew so attached to heryoung charge that when Jacob requested him back she refusedto relinquish him.4 s In the next chapter we will see this episodefolded into other tales of the young YU.Sufs entanglements. In conclusion, we can see that the praise and depiction ofJoseph's physical beauty and great charm play a pivotal role inthe Joseph narrative. In the Ancient Egyptian, Biblical, andQur'fulic accounts, and in the subsequent Jewish and Islamicembellishments, Joseph's portrait hovers on the border betweenthe human and the angelic. Both men and women were attractedto him, and much of the plot revolves around the consequences oftheir actions and reactions. Despite the androgynous undertonein many of the descriptions, and despite the early Rabbiniclegends about Potiphar's designs. it is Joseph's appeal to womenthat is most often highlighted. And despite the fact that a "wiles ofmen" trope balances the "wiles of women" theme of so many ofthe retellings, it is that latter cultural construct that is dominantthroughout the history of the Joseph stories.90 1he Wiles ofWomen/1he Wiles of Men

In the following chapter, on the women of the Joseph story,

we will again encounter, as Joseph did, Potiphar's wife, hercompanions the "women of the city," and his Egyptian wifeAsenath. But it is not only women in potential erotic rela-tionship to Joseph (a relationship either real or imagined) whoenliven our tales. We have seen that in one account his aunt,acting as his guardian, becomes unduly attached to him. Otherwomen-his mother Rachel, his kinswomen Tamar, his auntSera}). bat Asher-are also pivotal figures in Joseph's tale. It is tothe stories of all of these women that we now turn. ';o ~ ... x " X "

--- Zuleikha Complains of Joseph to Her Husband 5 The Women of the Joseph Story

The Egyptian women, daughters of Kings, desired to gaze

upon Joseph's face, yet he would not look at any of them. Genesis Rabbah (c. 600 c.E.)

In the patriarchal narratives, both as described in scripture

and elaborated upon in legend, women play a major role.Though the primary identification of each of the matriarchs,Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah, is as the wife of Abraham,Isaac, and Jacob, each woman also has a greater or lesserdegree of agency in the unfolding saga of the people of Israel. Ofthese women, Rebecca is the most assertive; it is her attentive-ness and "guile" that enables her son Jacob to earn his father'sblessings. In a similar manner, her niece Rachel's theft of theteraphim, symbols of household authority, foils the plans of herfather Laban and empowers her husband Jacob. While thesestrategies may be seen as examples of the "wiles of women,"they do not mark women as essentially more guileful or decep-tive than men. Because of their powerlessness in some spheresof life women may have to resort to guile. But dispossessed menin quest of power also have to resort to guile. Jacob's very nameconjures up the idea of the trickster. I emphasize this lack of distinction between the aims (andstrategies) of women and men to take issue with the view thatthe sexes are treated in fundamentally different ways in theBiblical narratives. While it is clear to the Biblical author thatmen most often have power and privilege, it is made very clearthat they must often gain this power and privilege by their wits.It is also understood that they may lose this power, often at thehands of a woman. As the feminist critic T. Frymer-Kensky putit 'There is nothing distinctly 'female' about the way that women94 The Wiles of Women/The Wiles of Men

are portrayed in the Bible .... the 'Biblical' image of women is

consistently the same as that of men. In their strengths andweaknesses. in their goals and strategies, the women of theBible do not differ substantially from the men. H) Some scholars note that in contrast to the earlier parts ofGenesis there is "a comparative absence of women in theJoseph tales.H 2 The women of Joseph's world are portrayed asless assertive and determined than their immediate ancestors,the matriarchs of an earlier but not too distant period. Despitethis scaling down of women's roles, we can point to a number ofimportant women in "Joseph." Dramatic changes in Joseph'ssituation are inextricably linked to the actions of the femalecharacters in the narrative. If these tales are judged to be "thebest of all stories no small measure of their popularity may beattributed to the lively role of the female characters. Thoughmarginalized in other parts of the Biblical saga (one thinks ofthe narratives of the conquest and settlement of Canaan)women have significant roles in almost all episodes of Joseph'sstory, though their centrality is less apparent than it is in theearlier foundation stories of the nation. In this chapter, I will describe and analyze the role of thewomen in the Joseph narratives, and demonstrate that we cansense a shift in attitudes as we move fmward in the history ofthe retelling of our story. The women in the Biblical Josephstory, and in the patriarchal narratives that proceed them, areportrayed in the heroic tradition. Their stories are of a periodwhen women's status, at least among the aristocracy, wasdepicted as an elevated one.3 Some of the legends indicate thatvestiges of this attitude towards women were retained at a laterdate. Stories told at a later time, when the status of women wasdiminished, may very well reflect women's elevated status in anearlier time-as well as the aspiration for future social changeand the return to an earlier model of male-female relationships. The legends of women in "Joseph" also lend themselves toanalysis in terms of cross-cultural and inter-denominationalborrowings (Jewish, Christian, and Muslim). As with the magi-cal aspect of the tales, the "feminine aspect" is one that tends toencourage such borrowings. The five women prominent in the larger Joseph narratives-Rachel. Tamar, Asenath, Sera}J. and Potiphar's wife-share anumber of characteristics. They are all described (in scripture or The Women of the Joseph Stoxy 95

legend) as beautiful; they are Wghly intelligent, and capable of

great wisdom and cunning. They are all "worthy of saga" andenliven as well as propel the narrative. And, I contend, the por-trayal of these women changes dramatically as we move fromthe more literacy scriptural traditions to the folkloric traditionsof legend and elaboration that flourished in the Jewish andIslamic cultural spheres.

Rachel

In Genesis, Joseph and Ws mother Rachel are described by

exactly the same Hebrew phrase, though the impact of thisidentical phrasing is not conveyed in most English translations:

Rachel was shapely and beautiful. (Genesis 29: 17)

Joseph was well built and handsome. (Genesis 39:6)

While the Hebrew uses the adjectives yafeh/yafah, in their mas-

culine or feminine form, the English translators have takenliberties with the sense of the text and leave us with a culturallydetermined "gender-appropriate translation." Joseph was "wellbuilt and handsome," while Rachel was "shapely and beautiful." Both of these verses are followed by the consequences of suchbeauty. In Rachel's case it is that, "Jacob loved Rachel" (29: 18). InJoseph's it was that, "His master's wife fixed her eye on Joseph"(39:7). As we saw in the previous chapter, Jewish and Islamicsources concur in the observation that Joseph inherited hisbeauty from his mother. (Though some legends also credit Wsfather Jacob as a source of Joseph's beauty.) The Zohar statesthat it was Joseph's resemblance to Ws mother that consoledJacob in his grief over her death. Jacob, therefore, was rendereddisconsolate when Joseph himself was presumed dead. 4 TheMuslim commentaries on the Qur'an vied with each other inpraising RaJ:Il's great beauty, just as they did in extolling Joseph'scharms.5 For commentators of both traditions tWs is one of manyways in which the lives of Rachel and Joseph parallel oneanother. In the case of Joseph, who more than any other child ofJacob is tied to and identified with Ws mother, we may rephrasethe Rabbinic dictum that 'The deeds of the fathers are signs ofthe deeds of the sons.''tl To read 'The deeds of the mothers aresigns of the deeds of the sons."96 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

Both Rachel and Joseph are the younger, more beautiful,

and more favored siblings of their respective families. Jacob, ashusband and father, favors both of them (Genesis 37:3). and thetext relates that "Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons, for hewas the child of his old age." Later, Joseph's own charm andbeauty win Jacob over. In Genesis 46 the Bible ties together the fate of Rachel andJoseph when it lists the "names of the Israelites, Jacob and hisdescendants, who came to Egypt." Though the three othermothers of Jacob's children (Leah, Bilhah. and Zilpah) arementioned in the list. only Rachel. mother of Joseph andBenjamin, is designated "Jacob's wife." Some Midrashim tell usthat the personalities and behavior of mother and son weresimilar. Rachel's successful attempt to steal the teraphim, andthereby acquire the symbols of family authority and culticleadership, is paralleled in the legends that report Joseph asstealing idols and other symbols of authority. This motif sur-faces in Jewish legends and these in turn may have influencedthe Qur'an and its Qur'anic commentators . Al-Bay<;Jawi, com-menting on Qur'an 12:77: "If he is a thief. a brother of his was athief before" states:

... they mean Joseph. For it is said that his aunt

inherited from her father Abraham's girdle; and she used to nurse Joseph and love him, and when he grew up to be a youth, Jacob wished to withdraw him from her influence. so she tied the girdle round his waist and then proclaimed that it had been lost; so a search was made for it, and it was found tied around Joseph, and thereby she became the most entitled to him according to their law. Another story is that Joseph's mother's father had an idol which Joseph stole, broke and threw among the carrion. 7

In al-Bay<;lawi's account it is Joseph who completes the mother

figure's appropriation of- and desecration of-her father's idols.A similar tradition about the brothers is recorded in earlyJewish legends. But there, the theft is imputed to Joseph'syounger brother Benjamin. In Genesis Rabbah. the brothersaccuse Benjamin of being a "thief and a son of a female thief,"referring to his mother's theft. This Jewish legend may have The Women of the Joseph Story 97

been transposed in its Islamic counterpart from Benjamin to

Joseph in order to strengthen the Joseph-Rachel parallels. These mother-son parallels extend beyond our protagonists'lives and into the depictions of their deaths and burials. In somelegends both Rachel and Joseph are perceived as having diedprematurely. Rachel dies in childbirth with Benjamin. "It wasJacob's unintentional curse against her on that occasion (stealingthe teraphim) that caused Rachel's premature death. The cursewould have taken effect at once were it not that she was destinedto bear Jacob his youngest son."8 Joseph, too, dies "prematurely,"for there are legends that characterize Joseph's death at age 110as early, for it falls short of the ideal Biblical age of 120. In Genesis, both Rachel and Joseph are buried elsewherethan the family tomb at Hebron. Rachel is buried near Beth-lehem, and Joseph at Shechem. In Rachel's case the text itselfprovides an explanation for the choice of her burial site. As shedied in childbirth on the road to Ephrat, her tomb was erectedat that very spot and Jacob consecrated it (Genesis 35:20). Noexplanation is given in the text for the site of Joseph's burial,though the commentaries attempt to explain the choice ofShechem in ingenious ways. Rashi (on Genesis 50:25) quotes alegend that says: as his brothers sold him near Shechem, inDothan, it was to that place that they were obligated to returnhim.9 Significantly, the Jewish and Islamic traditions providecomplementary tales regarding the intended burial places ofRachel and Joseph. A poignant Midrash informs us that Jacobwanted Rachel buried next to him in the tomb of Hebron, butGod refused his request. 10 There is a parallel Islamic traditionthat Joseph, according to his own wish, actually was bwied inthe Haram at Hebron. This may reflect the influence of an earlyJewish legend that Hebron is where Joseph wished to beinterred.11 We shall return to these traditions in our final chapter,"Joseph's Bones: Linking Canaan and Egypt." Much later in history the tombs of both mother and sonbecame important religious centers and places of supplication.In the case of Rachel's tomb, the Biblical text alludes to thetomb's importance in a later generation:

Thus saith the Lord: a voice is heard in Ramah, lamen-

tation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children. (Jeremiah 31: 15)98 The Wiles of Women/The Wiles of Men

The Rabbis understood this Biblical verse to be a reference to

the efficacy of supplication at Rachel's tomb.

This is the source of the Midrash that when the

Israelites were driven into captivity by Nebuzaradan. and the supplications of the patriarchs and of Moses proved to no avail. Rachel arose from her grave and implored God's clemency. basing her plea upon her own self-abne- gation with regard to her sister. God thereupon promised her the restoration of Israel. (Lamentations Rabbah)1 2

Medieval Jewish chroniclers noted the celebration of what

we would call popular religious practices at the site of Joseph'stomb in Shechem. At Rachel's tomb we fmd similar practices inmedieval and modem times:

The tomb is especially visited on the new moons,

during the whole month of Elul, and on the 14th of Heshvan, the traditional armiversary of the death of "our mother Rachel." Jews donated oil. sacred curtains and charity for the tomb structure. They were also accus- tomed to inscribing their names on the tombstone and measuring it with red woolen threads, which were tied onto children and the sick as a remedy for good health and healing. 13

The magical elements in these practices are obvious: the visits

during the new moon, the dedication of sacred objects to theshrine, and the invocation of sympathetic magic in order to pro-tect children and the sick. In the Aggadic imagination Racheland Joseph were linked in death as well as in life.

Tamar

Most readers of Genesis do not consider Tamar a character

in the Joseph tales. For many critics and readers, the tale ofJudah and Tamar as told in Genesis 38 is an intrusion into thenarrative flow that begins with Chapter 37 and ends with theclosing of Genesis in Chapter 50. One of the ingenious solutionsto this problem, based on the Documentary Hypothesis, is thatthe inclusion of Chapter 38 at this point in Joseph's unfolding The Women of the Joseph Story 99

story is the result of a redactor's compromise between Northern

(Israelite) and Southern (Judean) claims to authority andleadership. In an attempt to satisfy both claims to legitimacy,the redactor wove the story of Tamar, a southern or Judean talewhich affirms Judean legitimacy, into the Northern story of theorigins of the Joseph tribes. This type of explanation was antici-pated by the fifteenth century Jewish savant Don Isaac Abra-banel. He recognized that competing claims to kingship were atissue in the latter part of Genesis and explained the "intrusion"of Chapter 38 into the Joseph narrative as a reminder that the"House of Joseph" because of its descent from "Asenath theEgyptian" did not remain the tribe of royalty. The kings of thetribe of Judah, descended from Tamar (who the Rabbis des-cribed as "daughter of Shem") and Judah, were the rulers des-tined to be "God's holy Kings for all time." Today. many scholarshave accepted the view that Chapter 38 derives from the samesource as the surrounding narrative (the J or Jehovist source)but claim that, "The narrative is a completely independent unit.It has no connection with the drama of Joseph, which it inter-rupts at the conclusion of Act I. " 14 A more organic view ofChapter 38 and its placement was advanced by C. H. Gordon,who views the break in the Joseph story as a literary device:

"Where an entirely different tale is interposed, may it

not be that the Biblical author or editor purposely inserted this long chapter for suspense. For, while Joseph is left behind as a slave in Potiphar's house, we must go through all of Chapter 38 before we get back to the fate of the hero." 15

That there is a thematic link between Chapter 38 and the sur-

rounding chapters was recognized by the classical Jewish com-mentaries, foremost among them, Rashi (d. 1105). ln making thislink Rashi and other commentaries were building on Midrashimwhich tied together the Joseph story and the tale of Judah andTamar. Rashi's comments on Genesis 38: 15:

Why was this section adjoined here? It interrupted

the section of Joseph. To teach us that his [Judah's] brothers removed him from his rank. When they saw100 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

the grief of his father, they said "you said to sell him. Had you said to return him we would have listened to you."G

Judah's misadventure is thus linked to the plot of the Joseph

stoxy. Judah's complicity in Joseph's disappearance is not for-gotten; because he neglected his brother he will now be punished.He will be humiliated by Tamar. The narrative digression thusserves a didactic purpose. In other attempts to link the twostories. the sexual abandon of Judah and his sons is contrastedwith Joseph's chastity. One striking Rabbinic commentary on the question of thetwo stories' proximity affirms the innocence of both Tamar andPotiphar's wife. Genesis Rabbah quotes Rabbi Samuel benNahman to the effect that the stories of Tamar and Potiphar'swife are linked to teach us that "as the former was actuated bypure motive, so was the latter." For Tamar foresaw that shewould give birth to the ancestors of the kings of the Davidicdynasty, and Potiphar's wife saw that she would be the "mother"of Joseph's descendants.17 This comment maps on nicely to the higher criticism viewthat Chapter 38 displays concerns about authority and leader-ship in Ancient Israel, a concern demonstrated in the integra-tion of Israelite and Judean origin tales. The Rabbinic tradition,aware of the contending northern and southern claims to king-ship and authority, validates them both and fuses their claimsthrough the stories of Tamar and Potiphar's wife. Tamar on theJudean or Southern side, and Potiphar's wife on the Israelite ornorthern side, acted honorably and with the future interests ofall Israel uppermost in their minds. For scholars who emphasize the "trickster" motif in Genesis,Tamar's justified entrapment of Judah is both the tale of thedisenfranchised woman as trickster and an instance in whichmale wrongdoing is punished, though in a roundabout manner.Some scholars have suggested that Judah's entrapment andembarrassment balances the brother's misdeed to Joseph. "AsJoseph was taken in ambush, so Judah is taken by deceptionand forced to do his duty to Tamar."8 Robert Alter's analysis ofChapter 38 also places Judah and Tamar within the widercontext of the Joseph narrative: The Women of the Joseph Story 101

There is thematic justification for the connection

(between the two stories) since the tale of Judah and his offspring, Uke the whole Joseph story, and indeed Uke the entire Book of Genesis, is about the reversal of the iron law of primogeniture, about the election through some devious twist of destiny of a younger son to carry on the line. There is, one might add, genealogical irony in the insertion of this material at this point of the story, for while Joseph, next to the youngest of the sons, will eventually rule over his brothers in his own lifetime as splendidly as he has dreamed, it is Judah, the fourth- born, who will be the progenitor of the kings of Israel, as the end of Genesis 38 will remind us. 19

There is a voluminous secondary literature on the function

and placement of Genesis 38.20 Alter's observation that, "Tamarwants to become the channel of the seed of Judah" echoes theMidrash about Potiphar's wife that I cited earlier. She was told bythe court astrologers that she would bear Joseph's children.Therefore she tried to seduce him. What she did not realize wasthat the prediction meant that her daughter Asenath would bearJoseph's children, Ephraim and Mannaseh. 21 Tamar and Asenath are also linked by a set of legends abouttheir genealogy. The Rabbis were obviously troubled by the non-Israelite origins of both women; as described in the Bible Tamarwas a Canaanite and Asenath an Egyptian. To legitimize theirroles as ancestors of the Kings of Judah and Israel, legendsascribe to each of them "appropriate" ancestors. Tamar is des-cribed as a direct descendant of Shem, which places her amonga righteous and genealogically acceptable family; of Asenath it issaid that she was the daughter of Jacob's daughter Dinah.22 Though Tamar never directly enters into the Joseph tale,her tale is very much of a piece with both the spirit and circum-stances of the Joseph narratives. A midrash establishes thislink through a familiar hermeneutical device. It cites two par-allel episodes in otherwise unconnected narratives and uses thenewly-found connection as the basis for a homily. 'The Holy onePraised be He said to Judah, you deceived your father with akid of the goats. By your life, Tamar will deceive you with a kidof the goats. "23 The goat in whose blood the brothers dip102 The Wiles ofWomen/The Wiles ofMen

Joseph's coat, and the goat that Tamar demands as payment

for her services to Judah. is the symbolic link between Judah'scomplicity in Joseph's disappearance and his punishment-inthe form of humiliation-at the hands ofTamar.

The Women of the City

The women discussed thus far are characters that are men-tioned, however briefly, in the Biblical text. Potiphar's wife, ofcourse, occupies a central role in the Genesis narrative. Thenineteenth century Orientalist E. Meyer claimed that this motifrepresented the oldest layer of the Joseph material, and that itmay have been directly influenced by the Egyptian Tale of n.uoBrothers.24 In this section we shall discuss a group of women notmentioned in the Tale of n.uo Brothers or the Bible: the "womenof the city," those companions of Potiphar's wife who gossipedabout her designs on Joseph and whose actions later serve toprove her point about Joseph's irresistible charms. They appearin the Qur'an, where it is related that Potiphar's wife. after herattempts to seduce Joseph fail. invited her companions to abanquet and presented them with fruit and knives. She thencalled Joseph into the room. Overcome by his beauty they cuttheir hands and exclaim: "'Th.is is no mortal: he is no other but anoble angel." Is this episode an Islamic contribution to the larger narra-tive? Or can it be traced to an earlier Jewish prototype? AJewish form of this episode is found in the Midrash Tanhuma,"...where it is introduced with the formula 'our masters say'which indicates that an old source was made use of. "25 In theJewish version the women are cutting etrogim (the citrus fruitassociated with the holiday of sukkot or Tabernacles) whenJoseph appears among them. The stoxy also appears in MidrashYashar, but according to L. Ginzberg, "Whether Yashar madeuse of Qur'an 12:30-33 is doubtful; the Jewish origin of thelegend as given in Tanhuma is beyond dispute. "26 An exami-nation of the sources cited reveals that Ginzberg's conclusionsare not as self-evident as he makes them out to be, and it is notclear that this is an episode flrst told in a Jewish source. Forthese Midrashim are vexy difficult to date and it may be that theepisode originated in the Qur'an and was later transmitted toJewish anthologists. S. D. Goitein noted that: The Women of the Joseph Stacy 103

This scene [that of the ladies of the party). which has

often been depicted by Muslim painters, is found in Hebrew literature later than the Qur'an. It may have been told to Muhammad by a Jew, although it does not occur in the ancient Midrash, but it is more likely that the vecy u n-Arab theme had come to the Arabs from some Persian romance and was introduced by Muham- mad himself into the stacy of Joseph. Later on, it also found its way into popular Jewish literature. 27

If Goitein's reading of the evidence is correct. this vivid

episode, the cutting of the hands, serves as an example of cul-tural borrowing and repayment. Later Jewish folklore, influencedby legends circulating in an Islamic milieu, adopted this Qur'arucepisode and added a detail-the citrons-which "authenticates"it as a Jewish stacy. But this specific Muslim-Jewish exchange ofnarrative detail does not end with the development of a Jewishvariant of a Qur'anic tale. In al-Tha'labi's eleventh centucyretelling of Sltrat Yllsuf. the women of the city are given a varietyof fruits to eat. including pomegranates, bananas, and atrqj. Thisis the Arabic equivalent of the Hebrew etrog, the citrus fruitassociated with the holiday of Sukkot that is mentioned inJewish versions of the stacy. In the process of cultural cross-fertilization this Islamic anthology of tales absorbed folklorematerial from a Jewish source, and make the ceremonial citrusof Jewish ritual the fruit served to the women. These women, ofcourse. were characters first delineated in Islamic scripture. The etrog, the citrus media whose botanical origins lie inIndia or Iran, might strike the reader as a strange choice of fruitto offer at a banquet. Its rind is thick and its taste quite bitter.But it is not its taste, but its associative value that must havegenerated this detail. For the etrog, known in medieval sourcesas the "lust apple," is said in one Jewish legend to have beenthe "fruit of the Tree of Knowledge" that Eve offered to Adam. Inthe banquet episode it evokes both sexual knowledge and theunderlying trope of the "wiles of women." A popular Egyptianfolktale has it that tangerines were the fruit that Zuleikhaserved to her friends. In Egyptian colloquial Arabic the tangerineis called "yusef effendi" ("mister Joseph"); named, according tosome authorities. after the events of that fateful banquet.28104 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

Though the question of the original provenance of the "cut-

ting the hands" episode proves difficult to answer conclusively,there is another question which may be more fruitfully posed.Why were the "women of the city" added to the narrative in bothJewish and Islamic legend? Wasn't the Potiphar's Wife story"sufficient unto itself?" Hadn't it satisfied readers for a millen-nium? Four answers suggest themselves:

1) Their presence in the story heightens the drama, it adds

an element of court intrigue to what was an intimate, personal story. Potiphar's wife's method of involving her female companions is a manifestation of kayd, or guile. an attribute valorized in many other tales of women and men in pursuit of their aims. 2) The women's reaction to Joseph emphasizes his great beauty and irresistible sexual charms. Overcome by pas- sion, they cut their hands instead of their fruit. 3) This is an example of a familiar literary device, "build up and climax. "29 Joseph not only has to resist the charms of Potiphar's wife, he has to contend with a full bevy of beauties, each of whom would like to seduce him. In some Midrashim each of the "women of the city" attempt to seduce Joseph on a number of occasions. 4) In the earlier accounts the encounter between Zuleikha and Joseph is personal and intimate. With the involve- ment of her companions, "the passion itself becomes social."~ Al-Tha'labi quotes Wahb ibn Munabbih who tells us that seven of the forty women "died from longing." Bai<;Jawi says that there were forty women at the ban- quet, and that five of them were the gossips who insti- gated the campaign against Potiphar's wife. "These women were the wives of the chamberlain, butler, baker, prison-keeper, and head groom. "3 1 In her description of her encounter with Yusuf, Zuleikha does not spare her companions any of the graphic details of their meeting, or her plans for their future together. As al-'Jabarl tells it she pointed to Yusuf and said, "111is is the one on whose account you blamed me. I asked of him an evil act. but he proved continent. And after he had loosened his trousers. he remained continent. I do not know what appeared to him. But if he does not do what I order- The Women of the Joseph Story 105

that is, have intercourse-verily he will be imprisoned

and brought low."32

The intensity of these women's response to Joseph is high-

lighted in al-Bay<;)aw'i's comment on the phrase "And when theysaw him they so admired him." He first quotes the traditionalinterpretation of the verse, "And when they saw him they thoughthim marvellous and were awed at his superlative beauty." Thenhe states:

Another interpretation is that 'akbama. has the sense

here of "menstruated," since one says of a woman 'akbarat (she has grown up) meaning "she menstruated" because a woman enters on adulthood with menstrua- tion. In this case the -hu attached to the verb is a pro- noun representing a verbal noun (a cognate accusative, maful mutlaq) or, it refers to Joseph with omission of the preposition "for'' i.e., they menstruated because ofhim out of the violence of lust. 33

As the contemporary critic Abdelwahab Bouhdiba noted. the

symbolism of the cut hands, in juxtaposition with the onset ofmenstruation, is both obvious and effective:

The emotion felt of the sight of Joseph was so great that

the charming assembly was seized by a collective phy- siological pain ... the menstrual blood has its corollary and counterpart in the blood shed on their own hands. Their admiration for Joseph was such that they could no longer distinguish between either the fruit and their hands, or the blades and handles of their knives! The symbolism could not be more transparent: the oranges and knives are substitutes for an act of love so desired by the women, but refused by Joseph, the mere sight of whom brings on a collective orgasm on their part. The eroticism here derives from the divine, angelic character of Joseph. Love and prophecy are identified; the beau- tiful reveals the sacred.34

Al-Bay<;)aw'i's note on the intensity of the women's responses

to Joseph serves to emphasize the theme of i.Jlexorable fate that106 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

operates throughout our tale. Zuleikha is helpless in the face of

her passionate attachment to Joseph, and she proves it by havinghim elicit the same passionate response from her companions.Joseph's subsequent imprisonment and elevation to nobility arealso seen as predestined, as is his union with Asenath, daughterof the priest of On. city of the Sun God.

Asenath

"And he gave him as wife Asenath, daughter of Potiphar,

Priest of On." (Genesis 41:45) An Egyptian reading of Asenath'sname has been advanced by modern scholars. It is the Egyptianiw.s-n-nt. "She who is given by the goddess Neith."35 As I mentioned above, Joseph's marriage to the daughter ofan Egyptian priest troubled the Rabbinic exegetes. For howcould the favored son of Israel many one of "the daughters ofthe land." One attempt at "exegetical management" of theBiblical text was to make Asenath a more acceptable wife forJoseph (and, by extension. a more acceptable mother for hischildren) by claiming that though brought up in the Egyptiannobleman's house. she actually was the daughter of Dinah andShechem. An early form of this legend is found in Pirke De REliezer (Chapter 38):

Dinah went forth to see those girls who were making

merry; and Shechem seized her, and he slept with her, and she conceived and bare Asenath. The sons of Israel said that she (the child) should be killed, for they said that now people would say in all the land that there was an immoral daughter in the tents of Jacob. What did (Jacob) do? He wrote the Holy name upon a golden plate, and suspended it about her neck and sent her away. She went her way...Michael the angel descended and took her, and brought her down to Egypt to the house of Potiphera; because Asenath was destined to become the wife of Joseph. 36

This Midrash, which serves as a recapitulation and elabora-

tion of Genesis 34: l, notes that Dinah "went forth to seek thosegirls who were making merry." In doing so it elaborates on thespare narrative of the Bible and supports the contention that The Women of the Joseph Story 107

Dinah was not merely a passive participant in the ensuing

drama. An earlier Midrash, Genesis Rabbah, commenting onthe verse "and Dinah the daughter of Leah went out" (Genesis34: 1) portrays Dinah as a "loose woman." A more compli-mentary view of Dinah's behavior places her "going out" in aMediterranean cultural context. As C. H. Gordon pointed out in Homer and the Bible:

Maidens might go strolling in search of a husband.

Nausicaa is portrayed thus in Odyssey 6: 1 ff., amongst her maids. It is possible that Genesis 34: l-2 reflects similar usages and should be translated: "And Dinah, daughter of Leah, whom the latter bore to Jacob, went out to be seen among the daughters of the land, and Shechem saw her... " (after taking her violently) Shechem became enamoured of Dinah and sought her hand in marriage. 37

This legend places Dinah in a heroic context. Her daughter

Asenath would be an appropriate spouse for Joseph, who issecond only to the King and also a member of the aristocracy.Elaborations of this legend were soon to follow. In a laterMidrash (Ruth Rabbah) we read:

When Jacob and his sons, Simeon and Levi had

found out that Dinah was with child by Shechem, they threatened her with death if the seed of Shechem would be borne. Therefore when the day approached on which Dinah was to give birth she went out into the wilder- ness. There she gave birth to a girl. She laid the child down and stationed herself weeping behind a thorn- bush. An eagle, whose nest was in Egypt, where it received its sustenance from the sacrifices of On, the deity of the Egyptians, carried off the child and brought it to the altar of On. On the following morning, when Potiphar, the priest of On, ascended the altar for the purpose of burning incense, he noticed the girl. He rushed back to his house in great haste and related the miracle to his wife. Both of them hastened forthwith to the temple of On, where they found the child protected by the outspread wings of the eagle. Potiphar's wife108 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

adopted the child. secured a nurse for it. and both

rejoiced exceedingly. for they were childless.38

This legend implicitly recognizes and emphasizes the Egyp-

tian setting of the tale. By providing us with details that arecommonly identified as Egyptian- the eagle and its outspreadwings, the sacrifices. the altar, and the office of priesthood- theMidrash strives to make its embellishments authentically Egyp-tian, while at the same time validating the Jewish origins of thechild by distancing the reader from the acceptability of marriagewith non-Jews. Supporting this view of Asenath's parentage isthe Midrash that explains her name as a Hebrew acronym, andnot that of an Egyptian goddess:

The Alef in Asenath stands for On. where Potiphar was

priest; the Samek for Setirah. Hidden. for she was kept concealed on account of her extraordinary beauty; the Nun for Nokemet. for she wept and entreated that she might be delivered from the house of the heathen Poti- phar; and the Taw for Tammah. the perfect one, an account of her pious, perfect deeds. 39

Not all of the Rabbis granted Asenath an Israelite genealogy.

Rabbi Joshua ben Levi (third century c.E.) is quoted in GenesisRabbah as saying, 'The wife of Potiphar had seen in her horo-scope that she was destined to have descendants throughJoseph, but she did not know that her daughter was meant."40The intent of the legend is to explain the ardor and persistenceof Potiphar's wife, but it also indicates that Rabbi Joshua feltthat Asenath actually was Potiphar's daughter and thus ofEgyptian parentage. She was not a hidden daughter of Israel.That Asenath was born into the Egyptian aristocracy is the basicpremise of the Hellenistic Greek text The Prayer of Asenath.which "presents Asenath as a model of a Jewish proselyte." Islamic sources mention the Asenath legend only in order todeny its veracity. In his extended polemic against Jewish tradi-tions and rituals. the eleventh century Muslim theologian andman of letters Ibn I:Jazm cites a number of aggadot aboutAsenath. He then proceeds to attack their veracity.

Then they say. furthermore, in several of their books,

that after Shechem, the son of Hamor. had violated The Women of the Joseph Stocy 109

Dinah and has acted unchastely toward her, Dinah

became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter, and that an eagle carried off the bastard child and brought her to Egypt, where she was placed in the chamber of Joseph, who brought her up and subsequently took her as his wife. The stocy resembles the lying gossip which the women utter as they sit spinning in the night. 41

It seems that it was the more elaborate and "Egyptianized"

version of the Joseph legends that Ibn I:Bzm had heard and thenrejected. This legend was also rejected by the Samaritans. In theview of some scholars the Samaritan-Islamic "agreement" on thispoint-that it would have been out-of-the-question for Joseph tomarcy his sister Dinah's daughter-was the result of their com-monly shared prohibition against uncle-niece marriages. 42 Later Midrash anthologies implicitly reject the Asenath-as-daughter of Dinah legend. In the following legend, Joseph pre-sents Jacob with a ketubah, a marriage contract, to prove thathis maniage to Asenath is sanctioned by Jewish law.

Jacob saw that when he wanted to bless them

(Joseph's sons) the Shekhinah left him. When Jacob saw this he thought that they might be unfit for a blessing. He said to Joseph, "Who are they?" .. .'They are my sons." This teaches us that he brought [as evidence) his ketubah from Asenath. 43

Here Jacob expresses doubts as to the legitimacy of Jacob's

marriage to Asenath and questions whether his grandchildrenwere to be accepted into the lineage. If Joseph's wife was anIsraelite he would have no such doubts; the ketubah is pro-duced to demonstrate that Asenath has become a halakhicallyacceptable wife. The anthologies that quote this legend were composed afterthe twelfth centucy. Therefore, "it is possible that in this rejectionof our narration (the Asenath-Dinah legend) the influence of IbnI:Jazm's attacks is manifest." 44 It may be that Jewish sources,influenced by Muslim attacks on some Aggadic traditions, shiedaway from presenting Asenath as Dinah's daughter. If this is so,it provides another example of the "feedback" mechanism thatexisted between Jewish and Islamic lore. In this instance we are110 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

witnesses to one Jewish source's rejection of a legend as a

response to polemical attack from non-Jewish sources. Perhaps the most intriguing legend about Asenath is onethat ties her directly to the Potiphar's Wife episode. As we saw inchapter 2, Joseph. accused by his master's wife. was vindicatedin a number of ways. Jewish legends provide us with the namesof witnesses who come forth to testify to Joseph's innocence. Insome stories these witnesses are unnamed children. Accordingto one Midrash:

Asenath had saved Joseph's life while she was still an

infant in arms. When Joseph was accused of immoral conduct by Potiphar's wife and the other women. and his master was on the point of having him hanged, Asenath approached her foster-father. and she assured him under oath that the charge against Joseph was false. 45

In the Qur'an we read that it was an unnamed person, "a wit-

ness of her folk" who bore witness to Joseph's innocence. It wasshe who suggested that the condition of Joseph's shirt-whether it was torn from behind or in front-should determinewho is telling the truth. The Qur"anic commentators cite manyopinions on who this witness was. Some say that it was a femalecousin of Zuleikha, while others say that it was a child in itscradle. But as the Qur'an does not speak of Joseph's marriageto his master's daughter (a union mentioned only in Jewishsources). there was no narrative impulse to link this child wit-ness to the woman who would become Joseph's wife. 46 In reward for her defense of Joseph. God promises Asenaththat she will be the mother of Joseph's children. That Joseph isrewarded for his chastity when, later in life, he is given a beau-tiful wife, is an idea underscored by this legend, which makesJoseph's future wife, Asenath, the witness who vindicates himwhen he is accused by Potiphar's wife. A further delightful twistis provided by the author of The Prayer of Asenath, the secondcentury c.E. Greek work. He relates that "the son of Pharaohwas so transported with Asenath's beauty, that he made theplan of murdering Joseph in order to secure possession of hiswife." The plot is foiled by Joseph's brothers, Simon and Levi,those same brothers who destroyed the city of Shechem toavenge their sister's honor.7 The Women of the Joseph Story 111

In one legend Joseph pays a great and final trtbute to his

wife Asenath, while at the same time linking her fate with thatof his mother Rachel. As part of his request to his brothers thatthey bury him in the land of his fathers he asks them to buryAsenath in Rachel's tomb beside the road to Ephrath. 48

Sera}}.

In Jewish tradition, as reflected in both the Biblical text and

the aggadaic elaborations, a number of people are grantedimmortality. Prominent among them are two men, Enoch(Genesis 5:25) and Elijah (II Kings 2: 1). According to theRabbinic tradition, the only woman to appear in this selectcompany is SeraJ:l, daughter of Asher. In a Midrash, we learnthat she was rewarded for her kindness to Jacob. When hissons returned from the second encounter with Joseph in Egypt,they did not know how to break the good news to their father:

"On coming close to their habitation, they caught

sight of Seraq, daughter of Asher, a very beautiful maiden, and very wise, who was skilled in playing upon the harp. They summoned her unto them and gave her a harp, and bade her play before Jacob and sing that which they should tell her. She sat down before Jacob, and, with an agreeable melody she sang the following words, accompanying herself upon the harp: 'Joseph, my uncle, liveth, he ruleth over the whole of Egypt, he is not dead.' She repeated these words several times, and Jacob grew more and more pleasurably excited. His joy awakened the holy spirit in him and he knew that she spoke the truth ...Jacob rewarded her with the words, 'My daughter, may death never have power over thee, for thou didst revive my spirit.' And so it was, Serat,l did not die, she entered Paradise alive. "49

Sera}:is kayd, in contrast to that of the other women of our

story, is of a gentler kind. She uses a deceptively sweet medium-words set to music-to deliver a shocking, though joyful.message: that Joseph still lives. That Serat,l was immortal seemsto have been suggested to the aggadist by the inconsistenciesbetween the Biblical verses in which she is mentioned:112 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

"She is counted among the seventy members of the

patriarch's family who emigrated from Canaan to Egypt (Genesis 46: 17). and her name occurs in connection with the census taken by Moses in the wilderness (Numbers 26:46) ...The fact of her being the only one of her sex to be mentioned in the genealogical lists seemed to the Rabbis to indicate that there was something extraordinary in connection with her history."50

For the Aggadists, the fact that she was counted both amongthe people going down into Egypt, and among those leaving itduring the Exodus, had to be resolved. In the aggadaic imagina-tion the only possible solution to this problem was the assump-tion that Seral:l was immortal. Therefore, she was able to spanthe four hundred and thirty year gap between the descent intoEgypt and the Exodus from it. Despite this exegetical basis for her saga, Seraljs tale is aRabbinic story, not a Biblical one. In the numerous legends thatarose about her, Sera}) is portrayed as both a beauty and amember of the aristocracy, qualities she shares with the otherwomen of the Joseph tales. In the following Midrash, Sera}:l'sorigins are "worthy of saga,":

Asher's ftrst wife was Adon, the daughter of Ephlal,

a grandson of Ishmael. She died childless, and he married a second wife, Hadorah, a daughter of Abimael, the grandson of Shem. She had been married before, her first husband having been Malchiel, also a grandson of Shem, and the issue of his first marriage was a daughter, Sera}:l by name. When Asher brought his wife to Canaan, the three year old orphan Sera}:l came with them. She was raised in the house of Jacob, and she walked in the way of pious children, and God gave her beauty, wisdom, and sagacity."51

Of note in this Midrash are parallels to the descriptions of

the other women in both the scriptural and post-scripturalJoseph tales.

1) Like Tamar, Sera}:l is portrayed as descended from Shem,

son of Noah. (In fact she is granted double "Semitic" The Women of the Joseph Story 113

lineage in that her mother's first husband was also a

descendant of Shem's.) 2) Like Asenath (as she is portrayed in those legends that claim her as the daughter of Dinah), SeraJ:l is an adopted child. 3) SeraJ:l is granted, "beauty, wisdom, and sagacity," quali- ties that are attributed to the other women in these tales and, in fact, to Joseph himself.

From the many legends about SeraQ. we can construct a

short biography. She grows up in Jacob's house, "whose affec-tion she won by her remarkable piety and virtue. "52 She mustalso have won his trust, for Jacob comes to believe her whenshe gently, but repeatedly, tells him that Joseph is alive. 53 Herrole in announcing Joseph's place among the living is replicatedin the legends about Joseph's bones. Just as she was able tobear witness that Joseph was among the living, she was laterable to expedite his return and burial to the land of his fathersby identifying his place among the dead. Legends gives her thecredit for recovering Joseph's remains and thereby enabling theHebrews to fulfill their vow to Joseph and leave Egypt. Themagical powers attributed to SeraJ:l are related to her beautyand immortality, and she uses these powers to help Mosesrecover Joseph's bones as the Israelites leave Egypt. In our con-cluding chapter "Joseph's Bones: Linking Canaan and Egypt,"we will assess the wider implications of this tale of recovery,burial, and enshrinement. In the Islamic versions of her story Sera}) is not given aname but is called "the old woman of the children of Israel." Inal-lb.barl's History a spare, concise version is extant. In al-Thalabi's legends, as in Midrash, the woman is blessed witheternal youth. But this "youth" is granted as a reward for herhelp in finding Joseph's bones; it is only after the recovery of thecoffin that her youthful beauty is restored. Al-"Jabarfs version tells of the Israelites' confusion after theyhad crossed the sea. They could not proceed on their journeyand Moses enquired of the elders as to the cause of the prob-lem. They told him of the promise to take Joseph's bones andconcluded that with that promise unfulfilled they could notmake their way out of the desert. None of the men could helpMoses with his search. An "old woman of the Children of Israel,"114 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

who heard them talking, offered to help if Moses would grant

her a place in paradise. He agreed to her request, carried her tothe banks of the Nile. and together they retrieved the coffin. Al-Tha'lab1 cites a similar version and follows it with a morefanciful coda. In it the old woman asks for a place in paradiseand the restoration of her youth and beauty. Moses is reluctantto grant her both of these requests. but God tells him to give herwhat she wishes. In this story from al-Tha'labi's Tales of the Prophets. we seethe "old woman" transformed as the result of her cooperatingwith Moses. 1b.is is in marked distinction to the Jewish legendsin which she is graced with beauty from birth (a beauty which is"eternal") and helps Moses on her own volition. As the frame ofreference in the Jewish tales is Biblical, the storyteller assumesthat Seral:J, who was among the first Hebrews in Egypt. wouldknow of the brothers' promise to redeem Joseph's bones. andthat she had already been rewarded for her part in telling Jacobthat Joseph still lived. She does not have to be convinced of theimportance of her mission. In the Islamic traditions, the womanwho fmds Joseph's remains is not identified as a member ofJacob's family. She is not the woman who brought the goodtidings to Jacob. She has to be convinced of the importance ofthe task and rewarded for her assistance. The motif of restoredyouth remained in the transmitted folklore. but it was trans-ferred to the end of the story. According to Jewish sources. SeraJ:l reappeared in Biblicalhistory during David's reign. She is identified with the wisewoman who saves the town of Abel-beth-maacah by surrenderingup the head of Sheba. the son of Bichri, to Joab (II Samuel20: 14-22).54 Why the aggadists assigned SeraJ:l this role is notclear, though it is true that an unnamed Biblical personagevirtually cries out to be named, and that SeraJ:l would seem anappropriate choice. Granted immortality she is available for therole. a role similar to the one that she plays in the Joseph tales.In both incidences she "saves the day;" in Egypt through hermemory of how and where Joseph was buried and her masteryof magic and incantations; in Abel-beth-maacah through hermastery of diplomacy and her eloquence. When the wise womanaddresses Joab her speech has an incantatory quality: 'Thenshe spoke saying: They were wont to speak in old times. saying:they shall surely ask council at Abel; and so they ended thematter." (II Samuel20:18). While Joab's response is recorded in The Women of the Joseph Story 115

prose. the wise woman's words are in poetry. She is not only awoman of eloquence but also a woman of action. She goes to thepeople and has them throw Sheba's head to Joab, thus endingthe siege and saving "a mother city" in Israel.ss Though Sera.Q is granted immortality in both the Jewish andIslamic traditions this did not prevent her from being assigned atomb. For the immortal saint cannot be venerated if a site ofpilgrimage isn't provided. Her tomb was said to be in thePersian city of Isfahan.

Isfahan is also the seat of one of the most revered

Jewish "holy sites" and a place of pilgrimage and prayer for all the Persian Jews. It has in its vicinity. in Pir Bakran, the alleged tomb and sanctuary of Sera.Q bat Asher ben Yaqub ...visiting holy places and tombs was widespread also among the Jews in Persia, who used to make the pilgrimages to the alleged tomb of Mordechai and Esther in Hamadam. to the tomb of Daniel in Susa, and to the burial places of other Biblical heroes alleged to be on Persian soil/"'

This predilection for visiting the tombs of holy personages is

characteristic of the folkways of Shi'ite Islam. It also typifies, to alesser degree, habits of pilgrimage among Swmi Muslims and theJews of the Muslim world. Each town in the sphere of PersianIslam competed for the distinction of being the final resting placeof a saint Supplication at one of these tombs was believed to beefficacious in fulfilling specific requests, e.g., curing an illness,conceiving children, safeguarding the welfare of the family. Forboth Jews and Muslims, a visit to the tomb of Sera.Q was seen asassuring longevity, as well as granting supplicants the renewal ofbeauty and the restoration of youthful vigor. The legends that surround the figure of Sera}F-stories ofimmortality, magical power, the sanctity and power of thesaint's remains- are familiar elements in popular religiousfolklore. Sera.Q. though mentioned twice in the Bible, and thenonly in passing, becomes a fully developed literary characterthrough the accretion of detail about her very long life. Like bothEnoch and Elijah, she is a character who appears at timeswhen Jews are in peril. And like Elijah, whose cave on Mt.Carmel is a site of pilgrimage and supplication. her burial placehas taken on an aura of sanctity and power.116 The Wiles ojWomen/The WUes of Men

Seraljs portrayal in Midrash. a portrayal that mixes the

heroic and the pietistic-she is both a great beauty and one whocan "awaken the holy spirit" in her grandfather Jacob-sexves toremind us that Joseph. too. will be remembered in death as hewas celebrated, and elevated, in life. The other women of thenarratives, Rachel. Tamar, Asenath, and Potiphar's wife. arefully drawn in the Biblical saga. In the hands of the storytellersthe edges of these characters are softened somewhat. Theirpower and agency is diminished and their behavior is valorizedas pietistic rather than heroic. Sera'!). brought up in Jacob'shouse, "walked in the way of pious children," and Asenath isdubbed "the perfect one. on account of her pious, perfect deeds."But not all of their heroic characteristics are obscured; the agga-dists saw fit to assign SeraJ:i to the role of the wise woman whosaves the city of Abel-beth-maacah by surrendering the head ofthe rebel Sheba to Joab, the commander of David's army. In constructing an inclusive and cogent narrative of Biblicalhistory some aggadists found it necessary to include all of thewomen of the tales within the people of Israel. In the cases ofTamar and Asenath. both of whom are described in Genesis asdaughters of foreigners, their inclusion in the people Israel isrendered more plausible by attributing to them an Israelitegenealogy. Parallel Islamic legends tell of Potiphar's wife,repenting of her sins, and living out her life as a pious MuslimY But it was not only in the bloom of youth that Josephexerted a fascination on the women and men who encounteredhim. Later in life, when he ruled over Egypt, one Midrash relatesthat the daughters of Egypt "crawled over the walls" to get aglimpse of him. Most intriguing is the singular fact that evenafter telling of his death and burial, storytellers concernedthemselves with the fate of the physical Joseph. In a develop-ment that is unique in Jewish lore, Joseph's bones become, fora time, sacred relics in a culture that discouraged the reverencefor the reliquary. In our fmal chapter, I will examine and analyzethree aspects of this unique body of lore: the reverence accordedJoseph's remains, the development of his tomb as a locus ofpilgrimage, and the notion that Joseph's descendants areimmune to the effects of the "evil eye." In a strikingly similarmanner, each of these links to Joseph are centered on thePotiphar's Wife motif.~~~~Jt;)( V , I

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A Repentant Zuleikha Meets Joseph

6

Joseph's Bones: Linking Canaan and Egypt

In the desert Israel carried two shrines with them, one the coffin containing the bones of the dead man Joseph, the other the ark containing the covenant of the living God. Mekilta de Rabbi Ishmael (c. 500 C.E.)

Joseph's Bones

Genesis ends with Joseph's announcement to his brothers

of his impending death. He then puts them under oath thatthey will cany his bones to Canaan when they are deliveredfrom Egypt (Genesis 50:24-25). Joseph's interment, and thetext's concern for the fate of his remains, occupies a pivotalpoint in Biblical narrative, for it represents the culmination ofthe Patriarchal period in Hebrew tradition. The eventual deposi-tion of Joseph's remains is the subject of two additional Biblicalreferences (one in Exodus and one in the Book of Joshua}, bothof which occur at structurally significant points in the text.Joseph's resistance to Potiphar's wife is not alluded to in theseshort posthumous references to Joseph's remains. But this didnot deter the authors and compilers of Midrash and Qi~~ fromplacing that fateful incident in center stage when they came toexplain the extraordinary attention payed to Joseph's bones. The three Biblical references which speak of Joseph's remainsare:

1) The closing verse of Genesis, which reflects the Egyptian

setting of the tale:120 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

Joseph died at the age of 110 years. He was em-

balmed and laid to rest in a coffm in Egypt. (Genesis 50:26)

As we noted in chapter l. 110 years was considered by

the Egyptians to be the ideal life span, and this notion parallels the Hebrew ideal of 120 years, an ideal based on Genesis 6. and on Moses' death at that age. 1 The Talmud and the classical Jewish commentaries seem unaware of the Egyptian background of the age of 110 as an ideal life span. They viewed Joseph's demise as a pre- mature one. For, compared to Abraham, Isaac. and Jacob he died at a relatively "early age." The rabbis attributed this "punishment" it to a number of causes. The Talmud states:

Why did Joseph die before his brethren? Because he

assumed airs of authority. 2

Elsewhere, the Talmud views Joseph's early death as

the result of the burdens of public office. Tilis is in keeping with the dictum that, "Dominion buries him that exercises it, "3 and is an intriguing example of the recognition in antiquity of the effects of work-related stress. The Bible's terse description of the burial and em- balming of Joseph is in sharp contrast to the more elab- orate rites conducted for Jacob (Genesis 50:1-13). While Jacob insisted on immediate burial in Canaan, Joseph did not. His speech to his brothers has a prophetic quality to it:

When God has taken notice of you, be sure to take

up my bones from here. (Genesis 50:25)

That is to say. when you are delivered...then you shall

bring my bones. 4 Most Islamic sources. not influenced by the Biblical reference to 110 years. state that Joseph was 120 years old when he died. 5 This divergence from the Biblical statement is consistent with the fact that Sfuat Yusuf Joseph's Bones: Linking Canaan and Egypt 121

does not concern itself with Joseph's later years or with

his death. Rather, it focuses on his rise to power, his relationship with his master's wife and his reunion with his brothers. This was the material that held the greatest import for Mul)ammad and the community of believers, other events in Joseph's life are omitted or glossed over. Though these "omitted" aspects of the Joseph story may later be taken up in Islamic legends, they do not merit attention in the Qur'an's narrative. And when these aspects are discussed in Islamic texts, it is not neces- sarily the Biblical chronology that dominates the choice of detail. Some Muslim historians were familiar with the Biblical verses on the death of Joseph and offered the Biblical details as another version of the story. After citing the tradition that Joseph died at the age of 120, '}abari notes that "in the Torah it is said that he lived one hundred and ten years, and that Ephraim and Manasseh were born to him. "6 Let us continue our analysis of the Bible's treatment of Joseph's bones. As we have seen Genesis 50:25 links two events, the promised deliverance from Egypt and the removal of Joseph's bones. This link is later confirmed and strengthened by the two other Biblical references to Joseph's remains.2) In Exodus 13:19, "And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him," we read of the fulfillment of Joseph's wish. Structurally, this verse serves as the end of the Egyptian bondage narrative; the removal of the bones is Moses' last act on Egyptian soil.3) The final Biblical mention of the bones also appears at a critical juncture in Biblical narrative. At the end of the book of Joshua we are told of the burial of the bones, "And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, they buried in Shechem" (Joshua 24:32). This description of the final interment of Joseph closes the conquest and settlement narratives. Joseph's bones thus link the period of the patriarchs, with its roots in Mesopotamia, the Hebrew bondage in the land of Egypt, and the conquest and settlement of Canaan. As G. W. Coats noted, 'The death report about Joseph, with122 The Wiles of Women/The Wiles of Men

its bond concerning Joseph's bones as part of the move

back to Canaan, expands the Joseph tradition into the future stages of Israel's life on the land."7

This link is implied by the placement of the verses cited, and

it was elaborated upon in -post-Biblical legend. Though theclassical Jewish commentaries do not draw our attention to theBible's placement of the three references to the bones, they dorecognize the symbolic function of Joseph's remains, and theydo so by imputing to the bones magical properties. The bonesare treated as relics. though this is antithetical in spirit toDeuteronomy 34:6 where Moses' burtal place is concealed, asmany Jewish commentators understood, in order to prevent hisbones from becoming relics. Genesis Rabbah links Moses treatment at the hands of Godwith his own treatment of Joseph's remains: "The Holy One,blessed be he, said to Moses: In thee is fulfilled the verse: Thewise in heart will receive commandments.' (Proverbs 10:8)Joseph was in duty bound to bury his father, being a son. butthou, though neither his son nor his grandson, has occupiedthyself with his burial. So will I too occupy myself with thyburial, though I am not obliged to do so for anyone." As we shall see in our discussions of magic in the Josephlegends, much of the supernatural material concerning Joseph'slife stems from the legends concerning his death and burial.Appropriately, it is the magic of the Egyptians, in Rabbinicliterature the magicians par excellence, that is invoked in thesestories.

For three days and three nights preceding the exodus

Moses hunted up and down through the land of Egypt for Joseph's coffm, because he knew that Israel could not leave Egypt without heeding the oath given to Joseph. But his trouble was in vain; the coffin was nowhere to be found. Serah. the daughter of Asher, met Moses, tired and exhausted, and in answer to her question about the cause of his weariness. he told her of his fruitless search. Serah took him to the Nile river. and told him that the leaden coffm made for Joseph by the Egyptians had been sunk there after having been sealed Joseph's Bones: Linking Canaan and Egypt 123

up on all sides. The Egyptians had done this at the

instigation and with the help of the magicians, who, knowing that Israel could not leave the country without the coffin, had used their arts to put it in a place whence it could not be removed.

Another early Midrash adds, 'The Egyptians had sunk the

coffin in the Nile, so that its waters should be abundant. "8Through magic this would ensure the "abundance" of the river,the periodic inundation of the Nile. And a third aggadaic sourcetells us that Joseph's brothers, and not the Egyptian, "sank thecoffin in the Nile to prevent the Egyptians from worshipping it."9 The use of Joseph's coffin to ensure Egypt's fertility alsoappears in Islamic folklore. Al-Bay<;lawi. in his commentary onSlirat Ytlsuf, tells us that:

... the Egyptians disputed about Ytlsufs burial place

until they were on the verge of fighting, so they decided to place him in a marble sarcophagus and buxy him in the Nile in such a way that the water would pass over him and thereafter reach all of Egypt. Then the Egyp- tians would all be on an equal footing in regard to him. 10

(That is, they would all benefit from the blessings associatedwith his remains.) As the coffm had magical qualities, it could be recovered onlyby a person who was a master of the magical praxis. For theJewish aggadist, Seral:l. daughter of Asher, was an appropriatechoice as magician. As we have seen in the previous chapter, shewas deemed immortal, and at the time of the Exodus she washundreds of year old but still retained her youthful beauty. Asthe sole survivor of the entourage that entered Egypt with Jacob(Genesis 46:5-7), she was the only one who knew the where-abouts of Joseph's coffin and how to go about recovering it.Se~ gives Moses explicit instructions on the correct praxis tobe employed. It includes 1) a physical act: Moses is to cut upJoseph's silver cup (the cup hidden in Benjamin's sackmentioned in Genesis 43:2) and throw each of the pieces of itinto the Nile. 1bis is to be followed by 2) an incantation specificto the occasion: "Joseph. Joseph, the hour for the redemptionhas arrived." The formula was successful and Moses joyfully124 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

carries off the coffin. 11 E. Goodenough has argued that this

magical recovery motif is related to a tendency within HellenisticJudaism and early Chrtstianity to equate Joseph with Osiris, theEgyptian god who is identified with both death and the forces ofrenewal in the universe. The identification of Joseph with Osirissituates the legends of the bones in an Hellenistic Egyptiancultural context. Belief in the efficacy of magic. and in the powerof sacred relics, permeates these later Joseph legends. Later inthis chapter we shall have the opportunity to trace the identifi-cation of Joseph with Osiris, the Egyptian god of the dead, as wellas with the composite deity Serapis. Israel's fulftllment of the oath to return Joseph's remains toCanaan was to become a paradigm of the fulfilled promise. Athirteenth century "Jews Oath in Mamluk Egypt." which openswith a testimony of faith in God and the Law of Moses, is madeup of a list of "historical" examples that serve as warnings to theunfaithful: "If what I say is not true, then may I be enslaved toPharoah and Haman." Among these imprecations is "may I bethe one who advised leaving Joseph's coffm in Egypt. "12

The Two Shrines

After their recovery by Seral:l Joseph's bones become an

object of veneration: In the desert Israel carried two shrines with them, one the coffm containing the bones of the dead man Joseph. the other the ark containing the covenant of the living God. Mekilta de Rabbi Ishmael

The Mekilta goes on to list the Ten Commandments and link

each commandment to Joseph's life. Here, too, the Potiphar'sWife story takes center stage. "Here it is written, thou shalt notkill, and he refrained from murdering Potiphar when Potiphar'swife urged him to do it. Here it is written, thou shalt not commitadultexy, and he scorned the adulterous proposals of Potiphar'swife." The Midrash Hadar is extravagant in depicting the bone'smagical qualities, and it blurs the distinction made abovebetween the two shrines, that of the living and that of the dead.According to this source, Moses took Joseph's bones andwrapped them up in a sheep's skin upon which he wrote the Joseph's Bones: Linking Canaan and Egypt 125

name of God; the dead bones and the skin then came to life,and assuming the form of a sheep, it followed the camp of Israeldwing their wanderings through the wilderness. 13 This Vivid image of the bones resurrected through magichearkens back to the methods used to recover the coffm: thephysical act and the appropriate incantation that caused thecoffin to come to the surface of the NUe are here replicated inorder to bring the bones to life. Tills is accomplished by wrap-ping the bones and writing the Tetragrammaton, the ineffablename of God. The usual magical practice would be to recite amagic formula, in the case of the Tetragrammaton this would beforbidden; therefore, the name was written on the sheepskin.The Tetragrammaton could be written for sacred purposes, buton no condition could it be pronounced, even if one knew howto pronounce it. An aura of magic and mystery surrounds the tales ofJoseph's remains. Pilgrims to his tomb in Shechem were eager toexperience the benefits of this magic. In a pattern familiar frommedieval and modern accounts of pilgrimage to the tombs ofJewish and Muslim "saints," Joseph's tomb was the locus ofpilgrimage and a site where popular religious practices flourished.

Joseph's Tomb

The bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel

brought up from Egypt, were buried in Shechem, in the parcel of ground which Jacob brought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for a hundred pieces of silver; it became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph." (Joshua 24:32)

M. Astour and other scholars have pointed to affinities

between Shechem and other oracular -cultic centers in theMediterranean world. Characteristic of such centers were aspring, a sacred tree, and the grave of a revered ancestor. 14 Relying on this analysis, some scholars have attempted tolink the veneration of Joseph with the Dionysus cult of Greece,and they equate the burial of Joseph's bones at Shechem withthe disposition of Dionysus' bones at Delphi. Proponents of thistheory see Joseph, "... not as a type, but as an archetype.. .ln126 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

short we have to do here with no man but with the young 'DyingGod."' This interpretation is frrmly grounded in Frazer's treat-ment of the Tammuz myth. 15 The widespread and facile appli-cation of that material to Biblical narrative has been questionedin a number of publications by U. Cassuto, C. H. Gordon, andothers. 16 Their work is at odds with the "dying God" interpre-tation of Biblical heroes in general and of Joseph in particular.In their view. Joseph is a figure whose description is groundedin historical reality. This is attested to by the fidelity of thenarrative to its Egyptian background, as indicated by thelinguistic, geographic. and sociological detail of Genesis 37-50.Joseph, a heroic and pivotal figure in the life of his people, isvenerated in death. Speculation that this veneration is related tothe cult of Tammuz, tbe harvest god of the Assyrian and Baby-lonian pantheons. is not. according to these scholars, supportedby the primacy texts. Today, many scholars would agree. Beyond the cultic associations with the shrine of Shechem,Joseph's association with the city of Shechem allowed for thedevelopment of more creative storytelling. For the associative andsymbolic power of the city of Shechem was considerable. In theBiblical accounts of the conquest and settlement of Canaan,Shechem was granted to Joseph's descendants. Here, too, aMidrash forges a link to the Potiphar's Wife incident. Shechem,according to Genesis, was a gift to Joseph from Jacob. AMidrash explains why: "Shechem was his reward, because withhis chastity, he stemmed the tide of immorality that burst loosein Shechem first of all." Not content with this link between twostrands of the Patriarchal narratives-the rape of Dinah byShechem in Genesis 34 and the Potiphar's Wife episode ofGenesis 39, another Midrash goes on to tie both strands to athird story in Genesis, Joseph's marriage to Asenath.

Joseph had a prior claim upon the city. Shechem, son of

Hamor, the master of the city, had given it to Dinah as a present, and the wife of Joseph. Asenath, being the daughter of Dinah, the city belonged to him by right.'' 17

Why was Joseph buried in Shechem? The text in Genesis

50:25 does not indicate that Joseph expressed a wish as towhere he should be buried, only that his bones should be taY.ento the land of his fathers. In this he stands in marked contradis- Joseph's Bones: Linking Canaan and Egypt 127

tinction to Jacob, who is very specific about his burial site. In

Genesis 49:29-32, Jacob states that he wishes to be buried withhis fathers. He names the chosen burial site (the cave of theMachpelah), its locale (the east of Mamre), and the land in whichit is situated (Canaan). Such precise identification underscoresthe importance of that site, and no other. Our question then istwofold: Why didn't Joseph choose Hebron if his father attachedsuch importance to it? And if not Hebron, then why Shechem?The Talmud anticipated these questions when it had God addressthe tribes in this fashion, "From Shechem did you steal him, andunto Shechem you shall return him. "18 This is an interestinghomiletic solution to our two questions, though not a totallysatisfying one. That the Rabbis themselves were puzzled by thechoice of Shechem over Hebron is indicated in a legend where wefind Joseph himself expressing a wish to be buried in Hebron, awish that was to be denied. 19 We have seen in our discussion ofthe women of the Joseph story that according to one legendJacob's request to bury Rachel in Hebron was also denied. These two conflicting elements in Jewish lore, the unequiv-ocal, textual reference to Shechem as Joseph's burial place, andthe aggadic material about Hebron as a wished for burial site,may account for the unusual treatment of the topic in Islamictradition. The Qur'an itself makes no mention of Joseph's deathor burial; these details are beyond the scope of the Sura. Islamictradition cites Shechem-Nablus as the primary site of Joseph'stomb, though the site of Joseph's tomb is later identified asbeing in the "f:hram al-Khalil" in Hebron. Its location there isvery specifically identified by some early Muslim geographers,and at the present time, a Mosque of Joseph is situated in theprecincts of Hebron Haram. 20 The Islamic tradition that Joseph was buried in Hebron maybe the result of 1) the persistence of an aggadic tradition thatJoseph wished to be buried in Hebron and the logical assump-tion that as a "nabf' (prophet), his wish would be fulfilled. 2)Islamic reaction to the Samaritan claims concerning Joseph'stomb. As the Samaritans claimed descent from Joseph, theyelevated Joseph's tomb in their holy city of Shechem to aposition of great sanctity. The Samaritan chronicles, as quotedby James A. Montgomery in his pioneering work on the sect,records a series of conflicts with Christians over possession ofthe site:128 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

"The Christians came and attempted to carry off

Joseph's bones in order to transport them to their own cities. This undertaking was frustrated by miracles, including a wondrous light and cloud and finally they contented themselves with building a church over the spot. This was destroyed by the Samaritans, and the community bought itself off from the punishment only through payment of a fme. Thereupon, they made the tomb inaccessible for all time."21

The historical validity of this chronicle is not relevant to our

discussion, but Samaritan reverence for the shrine is. Thisreverence may have influenced the early Islamic tradition thatrejected this notion and in tum claimed that the tomb had to bea site other than Nablus-Shechem. The implication is that theSamaritans could not be correct in their choice of Nablus as itssite, and Joseph's tomb is no doubt found with those of hisancestors in Hebron. That the Qur'an and the early lpdith may have influenced bySamaritan material has been suggested by M. Gaster, who citedexamples of possible Samaritan influence on Qur'an andHadith. 22 And we have seen in our discussion of Joseph's mar-riage to Asenath that Islamic and Samaritan sources, united intheir common opposition to uncle-niece marriages, both rejectedone Jewish claim that Asenath was the daughter of Dinah andShechem. But on other issues, such as the location of Joseph's tomb,Islamic sources take exception to Samaritan claims. J. Finkelhas pointed out that some enigmatic references in the Qur'anmay be understood as reactions against Samaritan claims.Finkel explains Sura 2:95 and its commentaries, that imply thatSolomon was not an evil magician, as Mul)ammad's response toSamaritan anti-Solomonic propaganda.23 In a similar fashion, Iwould explain early Islamic insistence on Hebron as the site ofJoseph's tomb as a reaction against the Samaritan tradition. Ifthe Samaritans insist that Joseph's tomb is in their culticcenter, Schechem, the "authentic" tomb must be elsewhere. Hadnot the Rabbis expressed "misgivings" about the choice ofShechem when they had Joseph request burial in Hebron? The classical Muslim geographers describe Joseph's pur-ported burial site in the I:Jaram al-Khalil of Hebron with great Joseph's Bones: Linking Canaan and Egypt 129

detail. 'Ali ofHerat visited the site in 1119 A.D. and described theopening of the tomb by one of the Fatimid Caliphs:

Joseph's tomb is situated on the west. .. over which

they have built a beautiful dome. On this site, where the ground is level, that is, beyond the sepulchre of Joseph, lies a great cemetery, wither they bring the dead from many parts to be buried.24

As was often the case with the tombs of saints, great meritaccrued from interment near Joseph's sepulchre. Yaqut (d. 1229). writing a century later, first quotes 'Ali ofHerat and other earlier travelers, and then goes on to add theembellishment that the f:Jaram was built by Solomon:

In the cave is the tomb of Adam, and behind the

enclosure is that of Joseph. Joseph's body was brought hither by Moses, having at first been buried in the middle of the Nile. The cave is under the earth, the enclosure is above and around it, most strongly built.25

In Yaqut's report, we have a combination of two folkloric

elements: the attribution of the structure to Solomon and thereference to the Biblical (and later Islamic) tales of the recoveryof Joseph's bones. Ibn Battuta (d. 1369). the most famed of Muslim geog-raphers, visited Hebron in the mid-fourteenth century, and hisaccount adds a charming detail to Yaqtlt's report. 'The f:Jaram atHebron is built of hewn stone .. .it is said to have been built bySolomon, aided by the Jinn. "26 This ijaram was only one ofmany monumental sites attributed to the Jinn. In al-Tha'labl'sTale of Bilqis, the Jinn are ordered by Solomon to build castlesin the Yemen for Bilqis, the Biblical Queen of Sheba. 'The heightand beauty of these structures awed all who saw them. "27 Simi-larly, some peasants in nineteenth century Egypt were con-vinced that the ancient Egyptian monuments had been built bythe Jinn. 28 Though it may seem inconsistent to the modemreader, the same geographers quoted earlier also cite traditionsthat place Joseph's tomb in Nablus. 'Ali of Herat writes, 'Thereis also near Nablus the spring of AI Khidr (Elijah) and the field ofYusuf: further, Yusuf is buried at the foot of the tree at this130 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles ofMen

place, and this is the true story." And again, later. Yaqut says,"Yusuf is buried in Balatah (near Nablus) ...and his tomb is wellknown, lying under the tree. "29 These inconsistencies did not seem to bother the geog-raphers or their readers. It is a known phenomenon in popularMiddle Eastern religion that a holy man or woman can havemore than one tomb. In the case of Joseph, a third site, near Beitljaza, is also mentioned by later geographers.30 These competingsites all claim to be authentic; they are not to be confused withthe cenotaphs of the Greco-Roman world, which were monu-ments to illustrious people who were buried elsewhere. A point on which all of the reports concur is that Joseph'stomb was a place of pilgrimage, a desirable place to be buriednear, and the focus of magical practices. This reverence forJoseph's tomb was shared by Jews, Christians, Samaritans, andMuslims. and pilgrimage to the tomb has survived into themodern era. The practices allied with pilgrimage to the site areremarkably similar and they demonstrate a degree of culturalcontinuity between the late medieval world and the nineteenthand twentieth centuries. The following examples will serve toillustrate this point:

Jewish practices: A nineteenth-century British traveler,

Miss M. E. Rogers, visited Joseph's tomb in Nablus in 1870 and left us a detailed description of the site. She describes plastered pillars of stone that are set up next to the tomb:

These pillars are eighteen inches in diameter, and

resemble rude altars. In the shallow basins thus formed I have seen traces of fire, as if votive offerings had recently been burnt there. It is said that small objects, such as kerchiefs of embroidered muslin or silk shawls and other trifles are occasionally sacrificed at this tomb by the Jews. 31

Samaritan practices: In his chapter on "The Modern

The Samaritans appear to-day to make a point of

forgetting their dead, and have no subsequent commem- Joseph's Bones: Linking Canaan and Egypt 131

orations, except their visits to the tombs of the Patri-

archs.. .They are said to share with the Jews the custom of burning combustible items at Joseph's tomb. 32

Muslim practices: G. E. Wright (Shechem, 1954) des-

cribes the village of Balatah (near Nablus) as a place:

...which is supposed to house the tomb of Joseph. Here

today women with their children come once or twice a week, sometimes from considerable distances, for an all day picnic and song festival whenever there is something to celebrate. Here, too, individual women not infrequently came to pray when facing trouble of one kind or another. 33

Joseph's tomb became a focus for the practices of "popular

religion." Practices allied to magic, such as presenting "burntofferings" of cloth, singing and chanting, were engaged in at thissacred spot. It became a center for both private and publicattempts at intercession with the divine through the personageof Joseph. For, as I demonstrated earlier, the living Joseph wasdepicted in the folklore as a master magician; and one thatexcelled as a magician in a land that was the "home of magic."The living Joseph was intimately connected with magical praxis;in the same fashion, his tomb was perceived as possessingmagical power. In many Jewish and Islamic legends the originsof this spiritual and magical power lie in Joseph's resistance tothe advances of Potiphar's wife. The reverence accorded Joseph'sremains during the wandering in the desert, when his boneswere carried in a shrine, was understood to be his reward forchastity. His burial in Shechem, and the assignment of that cityto his heirs is also linked to the Potiphar's Wife motif, forJoseph's chastity is contrasted with the sexual abandon ofShechem and its rulers. The city's punishment-the men ofShechem, whose prince had raped Jacob's daughter Dinah,were killed when they were weak from the pain of circum-cision-further highlights the theme of sexual restraint. Joseph's power to effect, and counter, magic is linked to theconcept of the "evil eye," a belief that also has a sexual aspect,and we would do well to look for ties between Joseph and thispersistent and widespread folkloric belief.132 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

Joseph and the EvU Eye

We have seen that both divine and human charactertstics

were attributed to Joseph. He was beautiful, wise, "well-favored,"and an interpreter of dreams. In both life and death Josephexerted a powerful chartsma, and it was only natural that hisname would be invoked in magical practice, most specifically inspells that serve to guard against the evil eye. In Jewish folklore,the people most susceptible to the evil eye are, "the young, theprominent, and the beautiful. "34 Joseph surely fits into all ofthese categortes and would seem to be a highly susceptiblesubject. It is the immi..mity to the evil eye that is attrtbuted tohim in the folklortc matertal that makes the invocation of hisname a protective charm. This theme runs through both theJewish and Islamic sources. Theories about the origins and meaning of the evil-eyeconcept abound. The secondary literature is massive, and, asAlan Dundes noted:

"One has an unmanageable number of sources

available to consult for relevant information. There have been few attempts to explain the evil eye belief complex in terms of a holistic integrated theory... by far the majortty of the discussions of the evil eye consist solely of anecdotal reporting of various incidents...But prob- ably, the most widely accepted theory of the evil eye contends that it is based upon envy.:}$

The connection between the evil eye and envy is consonant

with the cultures of the two Ancient Near Eastern traditions withwhich Joseph is associated, Mesopotamia and Egypt. These twincultural associations are emphasized in the Biblical text. Josephis the last of Jacob's children to be born in Aram. the Mesopo-tamian sphere of influence. In Genesis 30:25, Joseph's birth andthe departure from Haran are inextrtcably linked:

After Rachel had borne Joseph. Jacob said to Laban,

"Give me leave to go to my own homeland."

In a similar fashion, Joseph's descent into Egypt from

Canaan is portrayed as preordained. This is implied in Genesis39: 1: "When Joseph was taken down to Egypt. a certain Egyp- Joseph's Bones: Linking Canaan and Egypt 133

tian, Potiphar, a courtier of Pharaoh and his chief steward,

bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him there."Some commentators have noted the use of the passive voice inthe opening phrase as implying inevitability.36 Joseph is thus thedivinely ordained link between Aram, Canaan, and Egypt. In eachof these cultures the evil eye belief complex operates, though withdiffering degrees of centrality. From third millenium s.c.E. Mesopotamia we have an earlySumerian text which contains an incantation against the evileye:

The eye ad-gir, the eye a man has. The eye afflicting man with evil. the ad-gir. Unto heaven it approached and the storm sent no rain; unto earth it approached and the fresh verdure sprang not forth.37

The text goes on to list areas of divine and human endeavor thatthe evil eye may effect deleteriously: "the growth of herds, theproduction of milk, the vigor of men, and the modesty of themaiden." That is, everything that might be envied by another isvulnerable to the malevolent force of the evil eye. Incantations ofthis sort are not uncommon in Sumerian and Akkadian litera-ture. In Egypt, charms of this sort are known, but are not com-mon. Gardiner quotes instances of evil eye belief in the Greco-Roman period, but these, of course, might be the product ofoutside influence and not from an indigenous Egyptian tradition.Other than these, he cites only two sources from Ancient Egypt:l) the title of a book in the Edfu inventory containing "spells fordriving out the eye," and 2) the end of the well-,known hymn toThoth in The Third Anastasia Papyrus, "0 Thoth, thou shalt bemy helper; so I shall not fear the eye."38 This paucity of sourcesindicates that the Egyptian belief in the evil eye did not achievethe widespread dissemination that it did in Mesopotamia. That envy is the central motivating factor in the fear of theevil eye is also made clear from the Incantation Bowl Texts ofthe fourth through eighth centuries c.E. In many Aramaic textswe find the phrase-"the evil and envious eye."39 In the Mandaictexts the parallel phrase is "the evil eye and the envious anddim-seeing eye of poverty. "40 In light of this Near Eastern background, we can trace thetheme of envy operating in the Joseph tales, both in the scrip-tural sources and in the later aggadaic elaborations. Envy is the134 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

narrative engine of the tale. The brothers' envy is unabashed,

and in Genesis 37:4, clearly stated:

When his brothers saw that their father loved him

more than any of his other sons they came to hate him so much that they could not say a kind word to him.

Envy is further highlighted in Genesis 37:11:

But while his brothers were wrought up at him, his

father pondered the matter.

and in Qur'an 12:7:

Surely Joseph and his brother are dearer to our

father than we.

This is followed in the Qur'an by:

Our father is in manifest error.

Baic;lawi highlights the emotion of envy in his comment on the

phrase "in manifest error":

.. .because of his preferring that which is inferior; or

because of his unfairness in loving. There is a tradition that Joseph was dearer to Jacob because of the "signs" which Jacob saw in him. and his brothers envied him. So when Joseph had seen the vision, Jacob's love increased to such an extent that he could not bear to be parted from him, and their envy was intensified until it impelled them to make an attempt on him!1

Though the immediate consequences of the brothers' envy

are dir~he is thrown into the pit and sold into slavexy---Josepheventually overcomes the effect of the "eye" and rises to promi-nence. But other eyes are later cast on him. Potiphar's wife'sattraction to Joseph is described by the idiom {In Speiser's apttranslation). "His master's wife fixed her eye on Joseph."(Genesis 39:7)42 Before his brothers express their envy, and long beforePotiphar's wife fixed her eyes on him, an incident occurred in Joseph's Bones: Linking Canaan and Egypt 135

Joseph's life which an early Midrash presents as a foreshadowing

of Joseph's protective power. Chased by his angry brother Esau,Joseph's father Jacob divides his family into separate groupings,placing each of the mothers with their children. When eachgroup presented itself to Esau, the mother of that group cameforth first, followed by her children. But in Rachel's case. the textimplies that Joseph walked in front of his mother. (Genesis33. 7) In doing so "he was protecting her from the lascivious eyesof Esau, for which Joseph was rewarded through the exemptionof his descendants from the spell of the evil eye. "43 Because Joseph overcomes the effect of all of these eyes, heis later perceived to be immune to the effects of the evil eye. Tillsis a unique conflation of the idea of the eyes as sexually power-ful. and the eye as symbolizing envy. Here again, as with thesanctity of his bones and the cultic significance of his tomb, hisresistance to Potiphar's wife is of paramount significance in thedevelopment of the elaborations of scripture. The motif ofchastity is retrojected back to his mother Rachel, with whomJoseph was so often identified. In protecting his mother fromher brother-in-law's covetous gaze he is foreshadowing his ownability to resist sexual temptation. The Babylonian Talmud (Berakhot 20a) relates that thedescendants of Joseph are immune from the effects of the evileye. The Rabbis support this contention with a scripturalreference to Jacob's blessing of Joseph in Genesis 49:22. (Josephis a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine by a fountain):

R. Giddal was accustomed to go and sit at the gates

of the bathing place. He used to say to the women (who came to bathe): Bathe thus, or bathe thus. The rabbis said to him: Is not the Master afraid lest his passion get the better of him?-He replied: They look to me like so many white geese. R. Johanan was accustomed to go and sit at the gates of the bathing place. He said: When the daughters of Israel come up from bathing they look at me and they have children as handsome as I am. Said the Rabbis to him: Is not the Master afraid of the evil eye?-He replied: I come from the seed of Joseph, over whom the eva eye has not power; as it is written: Joseph is ajruitjtil vine, a.fruiiful vine above the eye, and136 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

R. Abbahu said with regard to this, do not read 'ale 'ayin

but 'ole 'ayin. R. Judah son of R. Hanina derived it from the text: And let them multiply like fishes [we-yidgu] in the midst of the earth. Just as fishes [dagim) in the sea are covered by water and the evil eye has no power over them, so the evil eye has no power over the seed of Joseph. Or, if you prefer, I can say: The evil eye has no power over the eye which refused to feed itself on what did not belong to it. 44

In the digressions that follow this statement, the Talmud

implies that even if one is not actually a descendant of Joseph,one can dissimulate and claim such descent to protect oneselffrom the evil eye. Here, too, the same word-play on the Biblicalverse is used to make the point:

If a man on going into a town is afraid of the evil eye,

let him take the thumb of his right hand in his left hand and the thumb of his left hand in his right hand, and say: I, so and so, am of the seed of Joseph over which the evil eye has no power, as it says: "Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine by a fountain." Do not read 'ale 'ayin [by a fountain] but 'ole 'ayin [overcoming the evil eye). R. Jose b. R. Hanina derived it from here: "And let them grow into a multitude [we-yidgu) in the midst of the earth;" just as the fishes [dagim) in the sea are covered by the waters, and the evil eye has no power over them, so the evil eye has not power over the seed of Joseph. If he is afraid of his own evil eye. he should look at the side of his left nostril. 45

Islamic sources echo this belief in the protective power of

Joseph's name. That "the evil eye is a reality" is a sayingattributed to Mul)ammad in the canonical collections of Hadith.Belief in the power of al-'ayn, "the eye" was widespread in theIslamic world and "it frequently finds expression both inreligious traditions and in popular folklore. "46 In Islamic folklorethe vexy text of Sw-at Yusuf is invoked as a protection againstenvy. Commenting on the last verse of the Sura: "And a direc-tion and mercy unto people who believe," al-Bay<;)awi comments: Joseph's Bones: Linking Canaan and Egypt 137

There is a tradition of the Prophet, "Teach your

slaves the Surah of Joseph, for if any Muslim studies it and teaches it to his household and to those whom he owns, God will lighten for him the pains of death and give him the power not to envy any other Muslim."47

The implication is that there are those possessed of the evil eyewho have no control over it, and that they need external aid tohelp them control the impulse to envy. This belief in the invol-untary nature of the "roving" evil eye has been noted bystudents of medieval and modern Middle Eastern folklore. 48 The didactic intent of Surat Yusuf is quite clear. We arereminded of that intent in the verse "And a direction and mercyunto people who believe." and it is envy that is singled out asthe great pitfall. We have a veiled reference to the power of theevil eye in verse 68 in which Jacob tells his sons to enter Egypt"by different gates." The commentaries attribute this to Jacob'sfear that they would attract the evil eye. A saying attributed toMW:mnmad is invoked to illustrate the power of the word of Godto protect one from the 'ayn, the eye.

I take refuge in God's perfect words from every evil

eye and from every Satan and creeping thing. 49

The Arabic original has the formulaic, rhymed quality of an

incantation; it was obviously thought to be efficacious. Also ofnote is the connection made between the evil eye and thedemonic. In Genesis Rabbah we find Jacob expressing a similar fearof the eye. Commenting on Genesis 42: 1 (Jacob said unto hissons: Why do you look upon one another) the Midrash says. "Donot all enter through one gate for fear of the evil eye."50

Mystical Aspects of Joseph's Restraint

In life, Joseph was admired for his beauty and praised forhis wisdom and self-restraint. From a psychological standpointone could say that he represents the triumph of the superegoover the id, of the rational over the instinctual. This under-standing of Joseph's self-reserve is manifest in Jewish mysti-cism: In the Kabbalistic system of the sefirot. the "ten stages of138 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

emanation that form the realm of God's manifestation in his

various attributes," Joseph is identified with the se.firah of yescxlolam, the "foundation of the world." When the sejirot aremapped on to diagrams of the male body, as they are in four-teenth centuxy Kabbalistic texts, yescxl olam is identified withthe sexual organs. In a related development, when Biblicalheroes are identified with the se.firot, Joseph is the manifes-tation of yesod. This is an apt identification, as GershomScholem has noted, for it accords with "the Talmudic picture ofhim as Joseph "the righteous keeper of the covenant," whoresists the temptations of the sexual instinct. As the ShomerHabrit, the guardian of the covenant, Joseph comes to sym-bolize all aspects of the rite of circumcision, as well as sym-bolizing the sexual drive and the power to bear children. Thesymbolism is understood to extend not only to the people Israel,but to all of humankind. "5 1 Conversely, Potiphar's wife symbolizes the "evil inclination,"that lack of restraint that brings punishment down upon theworld. In the Zohar's extended homily on Genesis 39 we read:

"and much as she coaxed Joseph day after day"-this is

to say the accuser (Satan) ascends every day and brings ever so many evil reports and calumnies in order to destroy mankind. "He did not yield to her request to lie beside her"-because He has compassion on the world. 'To be with her"-that is. to permit the accuser to exer- cise dominion over the world. "52

In the Zohar's reading we are no longer in the domain of

personal passion and court intrigue. Zuleikha is here demon-ized, and the seduction attempt symbolizes and foreshadows acosmic drama, one in which Satan threatens to gain dominionover mankind. In death, with the temptations of this world behind him,Joseph is identified with the Tablets of the Law carried in theArk, with those institutions that impose restraint on the instinc-tual. The image conjured up in the MekU.ta, that of the childrenof Israel carrying two shrines with them, one with Joseph'sbones and the other with the Tablets of the Law, reinforces thisidentification. As we noted earlier, the Mekilta further empha-sizes this point when it links each of the Ten Commandments toepisodes in Joseph's relationship with his master's wife. Joseph's Bones: Linking Canaan and Egypt 139

In Islamic tradition, Yusufs restraint also takes on a mys-

tical aspect. In the great Persian poet Jfuni's epic work Ytlsujand Zuleikha (written in the 1480s) Yusuf represents divinebeauty and Zuleikha the yearning human soul. Zuleikha is toldby her nurse that "passion for your beauty will arise in hisheart, from all his soul he will long to be united with you." Tokindle that passion Zuleikha is advised to cover the walls of herbed chamber with pictures of herself and Ytlsuf "sitting togetherlike lover and beloved and embracing each other with the love ofheart and soul. Here she kissed his lips; there he opened herbodice. "53 Despite the great skill with which the pictures arepainted, and despite Zuleikha's attempts to bring the story toldin the pictures to life, her plans are thwarted. Ytlsuf remainschaste. The soul yearns for the divine; its ultimate goal, unionwith the divine, is elusive. \ In both Judaism and Islam, the call for restraint on themodel of Joseph is a call to moderate the sexual drive, not a callfor its suppression. For Joseph is also the symbol of fertility andplenitude. The children of his marriage to Asenath, Ephraimand Manasseh, are the progenitors of "thousands and tens ofthousands." (Deuteronomy 33: 17) In Jewish and Muslim folkpractice, a visit to Joseph's tomb and the invocation of his nameare depicted as powerful charms for barren women who pray forchildren. The amuletic use of Joseph's name persisted into the six-teenth century, when magical charms were preserved and dis-seminated in early printed editions of Kabbalistic manuscripts.In a copy of Sejer Raziel there is an illustration of an amulet54that invokes the name and power of Joseph in order to gainkindness and power for the person it is meant to serve. 'Ihis isnot only an amulet designed to protect the owner against evil,but also, to attract to him positive attributes and gain. TheBiblical quote used in support of this wish is Genesis 39:21:

God remained with Joseph; he extended kindness to

him and disposed the chiefjailer favorably toward him.

In the text of the amulet the second part of the verse is mis-quoted to read:

And disposed all who see him. favorably toward him.

140 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

This extends the power of Joseph's magic. The full text of thecharm reads:

An amulet for grace and favor; wrtte upon deer skin:

"By Thy universal name of grace and favor YHVH, set They grace YHVH upon N, son of N, as it rested upon Joseph, the righteous one, as it is said, God remained with Joseph; he extended kindness to him, and dis- posed all who see him, favorably towards him." In the name of Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Kabshiel, Yah (repeated eight times). Ehyeh, Ahah (four times). Yehu (nine times).55

Another medieval Jewish magical practice, the use of semi-

precious stones as amulets, makes reference to Joseph. Inkeeping with the Biblical description of the priestly breastplate,'The stones shall be according to the names of the children ofIsrael, twelve, according to their names," (Exodus 28:21) theJewish commentaries assigned each stone to the eponymousancestor of each tribe. The first stone mentioned, 'odem, isassigned to Reuben: the remaining eleven stones are matchedwith the remaining eleven sons. Joseph is identified with thestone shoha.m, which is a protective charm.

Shoham (onyx) This is the stone called nikli (nichilus.

an agate). It is Joseph's stone and it begets grace ...And it is called "shoham" these being the letters of Hashem (the divine name), in reference to the verse and "Hashem was with Joseph" ... One who wears it at a gathering of people will fmd it useful. 56

As was the case with the amulet reproduced in Sejer Raziel,

the power of the stone is perceived as a positive one, one thatwill bring gain and respect. The user is encouraged to wear itwhen speaking in public or performing administrative duties. In a form of word-play common in magical practice, shohamis viewed as an allusion to hashem "the name," the name ofGod. (Genesis 39:21) The verse used in the above-mentionedamulet is cited again in the gem text before us. The use of Joseph's name in amulets may have its origins ina practice known during the Hellenistic period. The Babylonian Joseph's Bones: Linking Canaan and Egypt 141

Talmud states that, "All pagan images should be cast into theDead Sea." This is attrtbuted to Rabbi Judah. who goes on tosay:

This also included the picture of a woman giving

suck, and to Serapis. A woman giving suck alludes to Eve, who suckled the whole world; Serapis alludes to Joseph who became prince (sari and appeased (hefis] the whole world. 57

E. Goodenough has pointed out that, "Under a general rule that

a prohibition indicates a practice, it is reasonable to concludethat some Jews did make amulets or use figures of the sortdescribed."58 Serapis, whose representations combined the character-istics of Osiris, god of the dead, and Apis, the sacred bull, was acomposite god introduced into Egypt under the rule of Ptolemy I(304-282 B.C.E.) the Greek general who served under Alexanderthe Great and later ruled Egypt. Both of these gods lent them-selves to identification with Joseph. Osiris was worshipped asthe father of organized agriculture and it was only natural thatthe Jews of Hellenistic Egypt should identify him with Joseph,the provider who saved Egypt from famine by organizing theproduction and storage of grain. (Genesis 41:47-49) 59 Anotherlink between Osiris and Joseph lies in the tale of the recovery ofJoseph's coffin. As noted earlier, this tale reverberates withelements of the Osiris myth: the disappearance of the body inthe Nile, the determined search, and the successful conclusionof that search. The Hellenistic Egyptian composite deity,Serapis, was a supplier of corn, like Joseph, and, "He waspractically identified with the Nile, the cause of the annualirrigation and thus fertility itself." The suggestion has also beenmade that, "...the bull as the symbol of the Joseph trtbe (seeDeuteronomy 33: 17) ... could be a reminder of Apis."60 Apis wasworshipped in the form of the sacred bull of Memphis. Knownin Egyptian as Hapi ("Apis" to the Greeks) this god was asso-ciated with both Ptah, god of creation, and Osiris, god of theunderworld. In Ptolomaic Egypt Apis and Osiris were joined inthe composite deity, Serapis, whose cult spread throughout theGreco-Roman world, and in some Jewish circles Serapis wasassociated with the Biblical Joseph.142 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

Louis Feldman has suggested that the identification of

Joseph with Serapis is explained by the fact that in the cult ofthe Hellenistic Egyptian god "the interpretation of dreams wasdeveloped into a fixed technique." As Joseph was identified byfirst century s.c.E. authors as a "prophet" of dreams. the identi-fication with Serapis was a natural one.61 Though the Talmud explicitly prohibits the magical use ofJoseph's image, subsequent developments in the Jewish magi-cal tradition indicate that the magical use of Joseph's power inother forms did persist. Use of the image may have been for-bidden; the magical use of Joseph's name remained within therealm of the permissible. The form may have changed (from Hel-lenistic amulets to medieval segulot}, but the concept remainedthe same: Joseph's name would both protect one from the evileye and ensure success and prosperity. The idea that Josephwas a protective "sign," had its origins in the Biblical descrip-tions of the Hebrew experience in Ancient Egypt. It later resur-faced in Midrashic, Hellenistic, early Islamic, and MedievalJewish sources. In all of these traditions. Joseph's chastity and his controlover his own "eye," is the attribute that empowers him. He inturn is impervious to the effects of the eye. This power wastransmitted to his descendants and to all who invoke his name.As the thirteenth century Midrash Hagadol relates:

The woman and the maidens of the nobility looked out of

the windows to gaze upon Joseph's beauty, and they poured down chains upon him, and rings and jewels, that he might but direct his eyes toward them. Yet he did not look up, and as a reward God made him proof against the evil eye. nor has it ever the power of inflicting harm on any of his descendants. 62

Thus the figure of Joseph. the object of sibling rivalry and

sexual attention in his youth. and the wielder of great politicaland administrative power in his maturity, was transformedafter his death into a symbol of magical and apotropaic power.And though the Bible and later Jewish sources consistentlyrejected the "magic of Egypt" (as the Talmud notes "nine partsof the magic came from Egypt"), magic of a more acceptablesort persisted. Joseph's Bones: Linking Canaan and Egypt 143

The ancient dead and their sacred tombs are not exemptfrom the exigencies of contemporary Middle East politics. One ofthe serious stumbling blocks to an Israeli-Palestinian politicalsettlement is the question of the fate of the holy places commonto Jews and Muslims. There are four major sites under dispute.TWo of them are the tombs of Rachel and Joseph. The othersare the cave of the Machpelah at Hebron, where legend tells usthat Jacob wished Rachel to be buried and where Josephhimself asked to be interred, and the most famous of disputedMiddle Eastern holy sites, Jerusalem's Temple Mount, sacred toJews as the site of the First and Second Temples, and sacred toMuslims as the haram al-sharif, the Noble Sanctuary. 53 Joseph, pivotal in the historical unfolding of the scripturalnarrative, also occupied center stage in the development offolklore and popular religious practices. Though forbidden in itsmore extreme Hellenizing form, "Joseph magic" and worship athis tomb(s) persisted in a religiously acceptable form for aremarkable length of time, and in some Middle Eastern circles,persists to this day.Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph Summary and Conclusions

Our survey of medieval and modern Biblical commentary

demonstrated that the Joseph story of Genesis 37-50 was viewedthroughout Jewish history as the central narrative in Genesisand as the most artfully constructed tale in the Pentateuch. In the Qur'an, Sllrat Yusuf was perceived by the classicalcommentartes and modern Islamicists as a superior narrative,"the best of all stories," as well as a teaching parable, "a guidance,and a mercy to a people who believe" (Qur'an 12:4, 112). The Joseph story's exalted status ensured it a place inreligious polemic. In its entirety, and in its component parts, itfigured prominently in the Jewish-Islamic polemic and in sec-tarian polemics within Islam. These polemics represent theintellectual expression of the Joseph figure's popularity. In morepopular modes of religious expression, those of local religiouspractice, Joseph emerges as a holy man and magician. BothJewish and Islamic legends focus on Joseph's power as amagician in the "land of magic." Egypt of the Pharaohs. Joseph's power was seen to derive from his resistance to theadvances of Potiphar's wife. In chapter 2 the account of Genesis39: 1-23 was contrasted with parallel, but not identical, accountsin Ancient Egyptian and Homeric literature. The argument thatthere is continuity between these ancient versions and theQur'anic retelling of Joseph's story was affirmed and refmed inthis chapter. We noted that both the Jewish and Islamic elabor-ations of the tale are more didactic in nature than their AncientNear Eastern precursors. They are "teaching parables" aboutchastity and temptation, rather than myths of national or reli-gious origin. In some Jewish legends Potiphar's wife comes tosymbolize "the strange woman. the allen woman that makethsmooth her words" of Proverbs 7:5. Islamic legend and poetic146 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

epic tell of a repentant Zuleikha, a woman who confesses the

sins of her youth to a saintly Joseph. In Chapter 3 our study then moved to examine the actualand alleged Ancient Egyptian background of the Joseph story ofscripture and legend. While some scholars see anachronizingdetails scattered throughout in the story, others see the Biblicaltale as permeated with authentic Egyptian realia. AncientEgyptian place names and character names, descriptions ofgeography and agricultural life, and reflections of the socialmores of the Egyptians are woven into the text. Attitudes of theEgyptians toward foreigners, and of the Hebrews towards theEgyptians, were examined through a close reading of therelevant Biblical verses and commentaries. We demonstratedthat the Jewish exegetes saw fit to embellish and reinforce thesense of Egyptian separateness conveyed in the Biblical text.Tilis is less so in the Islamic legends that touch on the samethemes. Jewish scholars were eager to distance themselves andtheir co-religionists from Egyptian ways; for Islam, this was lessof an issue; Egypt as a threatening pagan civilization was longdead. In analyzing the relationship of Jewish and Islamicfolklore and the question of whether stories were borrowed fromtradition to tradition, the evidence points to the fact thatlegalistic considerations were often the determining ones. Onetradition will not adapt a story from another if the point of thestory works against a known legal principle or injunction. Fordespite their great popularity, the primary function of thecorpus of legends were to act as a "handmaiden of the Law."Outside of that function, the study of legends was a secondary,if not suspect, endeavor within the worlds of traditional Jewishand Muslim scholarship and piety. The catalyst for Potlphar's Wife's folly is Joseph's charm andbeauty. Chapter 4 developed a portrait of Joseph-his beauty isextolled in all of our texts-but not without an accompanyingawareness that such beauty can bring its possessor greattrouble and sorrow. In Islamic art, Joseph figures prominently;a medieval Central Asian portrait is described in the presenta-tion of the pictorial evidence. The "origins" of Joseph's beauty-his ancestors, and its nature-provocative, with an element ofthe androgynous-were then elaborated upon. The characters in the story that are portrayed as mostaffected by his charms, the women in the tales, were discussedat length in Chapter 5. In Genesis, the women's role is an active, Summary and Conclusions 147

assertive one. In the later pietistic texts of both Judaism and

Islam, women's status as protagonists is diminished. Analyses ofthe role of the five women (and one group of women) in ourstoxy indicates that kayd (intrigue, malice, deceit) emerges as adominant theme in explanations of women's behavior. Otherliterary expressions of kayd were explored, with emphasis onthe stories of 'I11e Thousand and One Nights. Despite culturalprejudices that tend to denigrate women, these tales do notexonerate the male characters of the tales. Women may havetheir wiles, but so do men. In the storyteller's world treacheryand deceit are qualities shared by both men and women. andnot always in equal measure. In the Nights, where the motif ofkayd abounds, Joseph is cited as a paradigm of beauty, and theNights, both in its structure and content, has strong links to thePotiphar's Wife motif. With Joseph's death at the close of Genesis narratives, wecome to the end of the tale of the living Joseph. Chapter 6 pro-vides a survey of legends that indicates that in the popularimagination Joseph assumed great importance in death. Hisremains and tomb were objects of veneration. Joseph's tomb atShechem-Nablus became a site of pilgrimage to Jews, Samar-itans. and Muslims. Cultic practices common to these religiousgroups were found to have some shared characteristics, but oncloser examination were seen to be quite distinct in both formand meaning. Joseph's name was invoked in magical incan-tations of the three religions and in medieval Jewish folklore "benporat yosef' becomes a popular apotropaic charm. It remains inuse to this day. As the anthropologist Harvey Goldberg has noted,this "is one of the most frequent phrases on the lips of traditionalNorth African Jews." Throughout our discussion, Joseph'sresistance to his master's wife is identified as the source of hisapotropaic power. Among some Jews of the Hellenistic Near East, Joseph wasidentified with the figure of Serapis. Tills conflation, which linksthe Ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Jewish cultural spheres. illus-trates the remarkable continuity of folkloric themes among thepeoples of the Near East. Expressions of the impulse to glorifyand invoke Joseph later appeared in the Aramaic Magic Bowls,Arabic legends, and medieval Jewish legends. As with our studyof the Potiphar's Wife motif, the picture that emerges from acomparative study of the "Joseph as Serapis" material indicatesthat the cultures of the Near East actively borrowed motifs and148 The Wiles ojWomen/The Wiles of Men

narrative detail one from the other. In Judaism and Islam it wasthe legal and social implication of any one tale that determinedwhether it became "normative" within that tradition. But for allof the cultures under discussion here, the story of Joseph, that"best of all tales," exerted a fascination that continues undimin-ished to this day. Notes

Introduction 1. S. Thompson, The Motif Index of Folk-Literature (Bloomington: IndianaUniversity, 1955-1958), V:5. 2. John D. Yohannan, Joseph and Potiphar's Wife in World Uteratwe (NewDirections. 1968). For a recent survey of the literature on the Ancient Egyptiantreatment of the motif. see Susan Hollis. "The Woman In Ancient Examples ofthe Potiphar's Wlfe Motif' In P. Day (ed.), Gender and Difference in Ancient Israel(Fortress Press, 1989), 28--43. Two recent works which examine aspects of theJoseph Narratives are M. Niehoff. The Figure of Joseph in Post-Biblical JewishUterature (Leiden: Brlll. 1992) and J. Kugel, In Potiphar's House: The Inter-pretive Ufe of Biblical Text. (San Francisco: Harpers, 1990). 3. "Midrash Hagadol," Encyclopedia Juclaica. 16 vols. (Jerusalem: Keter,1972), 11:1515. This work was chosen as the latest Midrashic compendium tobe discussed in this study. This Is because of its: 1) contemporaneity with theIslamic texts cited in this book and 2) "Its multitude of extracts...from ancienttannaitic Midrashim either unknown, or only partially known, from othersources. In addition, it is valuable for the accuracy of its quotations fromknown sources. such as the Talmud and the Midrashim." 4. Abu l?l)aq Al)mad b. Mul)ammad al-Tha'labi, Q~~ al-anbiyd' (alsoknown as 'Anrls al-majalis) appears in many editions, but there is no standardcritical edition. al-KisaTs work of the same name was published in a criticaledition edited by Isaac Eisenberg (Leiden. 1922). It has been translated byWheeler Thackston, The Tales of the Prophets of al-Kisd'i (Boston, 1978). 5. G. D. Newby, A History of the Jews of Arabia: From Ancient Times toTheir Eclipse Under Islam (Columbia: 1988), 13. 6. R. Firestone, "Prophethood, Marriageable Consanguinity and Text,"Jewish Quarterly Review, 83 (1993): 331. For a vindication of Goitein'sstatement In Jews and Arabs. see the article by D. Halperin and G. Newbycited in note 17. 7. S. D. Goitein, Jews and Arabs (New York, 1965). For an exhaustivesurvey of these legends, see H. Schwarzbaum, Biblical and Extra BiblicalLegends in Islamic Folk Literature (1982). For an early formulation of Goitein'sideas on this topic see his paper in Tarbiz. 6, 1934-35. 89-101. 8. W. B. Brlnner, "Prophets and Prophecy in the Islamic JewishTraditions" in W. B. Brinner and S. D. Ricks, Studies in Islamic and JewishTraditions II. Brown Judaic Series (Scholars Press, 1988), 178. 9. Ibid. 10. S. Spiegel. Introduction to Ginzberg's Legends of the Bible (JPS, 1975). 11. On the elusive definition of "folklore", see A Dundes, "Texture, Text,and Context," Interpreting Folklore (Indiana. 1980), 20-32. On the application ofthe methodology of folklore studies to Biblical tales, see J. M. Sasson. Ruth: A150 Notes

New Translation (Baltimore, 1979), 197- 202, and the recent work by S.Nlditch, Folklore and the Hebrew Bible (Fortress Press, 1993). 12. In the wake of the September 1993 Israeli-P.L.O. accords, manyopponents of that pact have couched their opposition to the accords In termsthat are scripturally referenced. On the Palestinian side, the leaders of theHamas movement called on their followers to resist the Implementation of theaccords. Their manifestoes were structured around quotations from theQur'an, and in these manifestoes there were specific reference to Muslim holyplaces in the West Bank. In early 1994, Jewish settlers attempted to establish aYeshiva at the site of Joseph's Tomb outside of Nablus. The Israeli militarycommand objected, and, at a ceremony in which a Torah Scroll was to bebrought Into the Yeshiva, there was a violent clash between settlers andsoldiers. The Hebron massacre of late February 1994, in which a Jewish settlerfrom Kiryat Arba killed worshippers in the mosque at the Tomb of thePatriarchs, reinforced the Biblical associations of this political-military conflict. 13. Alan Dundes in R Segal (ed.), In Quest of the Hero (New York, 1988),179. This essay was originally published in A. Dundes, Interpreting Folklore(Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 1980). 14. G. Newby has warned us against "privileging" the Bible, regarding it asthe ur-version. "if one assumes with Muslims that the Qur'an represents thecorrect version of God's word (or actually God's word) then It Is the privilegedversion, despite the appearance of the Qur'an historically later than the Bible"('The Last Prophet. 30, note 92). For a survey of western scholarship on Qur'aruc"sources," see F. Rahman, Major 'Themes of the Qur'cin (Chicago, 1980), 150-61.Rahman, who was Professor of Islamic thought at the University of Chicago,makes the trenchant observation that Western scholars "are so preoccupied bythe problems of the relationship of the Qur'an to the Judaeo-Chrlstian religiousdocuments and traditions, that they hardly ever discuss the presence of theseideas among the Meccan-Arab population before Islam. 15. On the status of women In early Islan1 and the cultural underpinningsof that status, see the survey In L. Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam:Historical Roots of a Modem Debate (New Haven, 1992). 2~35. 16. H. Lazarus-Yafeh In Intertwined Worlds (1992). As mentioned above(note 2). two recent works that examine the Joseph story in the light ofcomparative study are Maren Niehoff, 1he Figure of Joseph in Post-BiblicalJewish Uteroture (Leiden: Brill. 1992) and James Kugel, In Potiphar's House:'The Interpretive Life of Biblical Text (San Francisco: Harpers, 1990). Niehoff.working in the tradition of classical studies, examines the portrayal of JosephIn the works of Philo and Josephus. As both of these first-century authorswrote in Greek for a Jewish audience whose literary and cultural referents werea fusion of the Judaic and Greco-Roman. their portrayals of Biblical figureswere often "tainted" with narrative motifs borrowed from Greek myth andreligion. Of special interest to Niehoff is the Greek-language text "Joseph andAsenath" which I will discuss in the section on Asenath in our chapter on "TheWomen of the Joseph Story." Kugel's.essays on the Joseph Narratives and the Potiphar's Wife episode isthe title piece In a book of essays on the Interpretation of biblical texts. ForKugel's earlier work on another aspect of the Joseph Narratives see his essay InWayne Meek's volume on Early Biblical Interpretation (Philadelphia, TheWestminster Press. 1986). While Kugel's main concern In his 1990 essay is Notes 151

with the history and biography of "Mrs. Potlphar" (an lnfellcltious locutionwhich I have tried to avoid), he does make reference to the many Islamiclegends that sprung up about Joseph's fateful encounter with the wife of hlsmaster. For further references to Kugel's essay on Potiphar's Wife see my notesin Chapter 2, note 13, Chapter 4, note 26. and Chapter 6, note 9. 17. "Creative Borrowing: Greece in the Arabian Nights." Medieval Islam(1946). For notes towards a methodology with which we can explore linksbetween Islam and Ancient Near Eastern cultures, see lise Llchtenstadter,"Origin and Interpretation of Some Koranic Symbols" in G. Makdisi, Arabic andIslamic Studies (1965), 426--36, W. F. Albright, "Islam and the Religions of theAncient Orient," Journal of the American Oriental Society 60 (1940): 283--91 andthe discussion and extensive bibliography In D. Halperin and G. Newby, TwoCastrated Bulls: A Study In the Haggadah of Ka'b ai-Ahbar." Journal of theAmerican Oriental Society 102 (1982):4. 631-38. 18. D. Redford, A Study, 94. 19. Thompson, op. cit. Susan Hollis In The Tale of1\oo Brothers (1990),noted that there are eleven discernible folk motifs in the Biblical Josephnarratives.

Chapter 1 The Centrality and Significance of the Joseph

Narratives 1. W. F. Albright, "Historical and Mythical Elements In the Story ofJoseph," The Journal ofBiblicalUterature 37 (1918), 111. 2. Eric I. Lowenthal, The Joseph Narrative in Genesis (New York, 1973), 1. 3. On the use of "toledot" In the construction of the Patriarchal narratives,see U. Cassuto, A Corrunentary on the Book of Genesis: From Adam to Noah(Jerusalem, 1961). 4. Donald Redford, A Study of the Biblical Story of Joseph (Leiden: E. J.BI111, 1970), 66. 5. Redford, ibid. For recent ciitical opinion. see G. W. Coats. "Joseph. Sonof Jacob." in Tile Anchor Bible Dictionary (eel.) by D. N. Freedman, 3 (1992):976--81. 6. N. Sarna, "Joseph." EncyclopediaJudaica 10 (1972 eel.): 209. 7. Gordon. Ancient Near East. 64. 8. N. Sarna, "Joseph," 208-10. 9. E. A Speiser, Genesis: A New Translation. The Anchor Bible (New York:Doubleday and Co., 1964), 292. 10. Speiser, ibid. 11. G. Von Rad, Genesis: A Commentary, trans. by John H. Marks(Philadelphia: The Westminster Press. 1961}, 342-43. John Van Seters hasnoted that "Since the time of Wellhausen, the various doublets and tensionswithin the story have made it a piime example of the division of sources intoparallel J and E versions. Prologue to History: The Yahwist as Historian inGenesis (Westminster. 1992}. 12. Speiser, Genesis, 291. For a sustained argument against "highercntlclsm." see U. Cassuto, The Documentary Hypothesis (Jerusalem, 1952}. Inhis notes to each book of the Pentateuch. Rabbi J. Hertz, Chief Rabbi of theBritish Empire, bnngs evidence to bear against the findings of the Higher152 Notes

Criticism. See J. H. Hertz. The Pentateuch and Haftorahs: Hebrew Text EngliShTranslation, and Commentwy (Soncino: London. 1968). 13. 0. S. Wintermute. "Joseph." The Interpreter's Dictionwy of the Bible(New York: The Abingdon Press. 1962): 2:983. For a review of "J and E in theStoxy of Joseph." see Redford. A Study. 251-53. 14. Coats. "Joseph." The Anchor Bible Dictionary (1992), 979. 15. G. Rendsburg, The Redaction of GenesiS (Indiana: Eisenbrauns. 1986).79. In The Uterwy Guide to the Bible, J. P. Fokelman quotes Northrop Fxye'sobseiVation that "higher" criticism is actually a kind of lower criticism. This Isreminiscent of Max Margolis' remark that "the higher criticism is a higher formof anti-Semitism." 16. Lowenstein, The Joseph Narrative, 1. 17. H. Freedman and M. Simon (eds.). Midrash Rabbah, II (London:Soncino. 1939): 772-73. 18. That there is a genealogical, as well as spiritual link. between Josephand Joshua is also emphasized by the fact that they are both described ashaving identical life spans-11 0 years. 19. S. M. Stern. "Muhammad and Joseph: A Study of Koranic Narrative,"Journal of Near Eastern Studies 44, 3 (1985): 193. 20. On the question of the reliability of the genealogical data in the BibleIn the context of the wider Ancient Near Eastern historiography. see T.Thompson, "Israelite Historiography" in Tile Anchor Bible Dictionary (1992),207-8. 21. M. G. S. Hodgson, Tire Venture of Islam (Chicago: University of ChicagoPress, 1974). 184. On the significance and originality of Hodgson's work, see AHouranl. "Patterns of the Past." in Paths to the Middle East. (ed.) T. Naff (NewYork. 1992). 46-47. 22. Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Holy Qur'dn: Text, Translation and Com-mentwy (Washington. DC: The Islamic Center. 1946), 550. 23. Montgomexy Watt, W Bell's Introduction to the Qur'c'in (Edinburgh: TheUniversity Press, 1970). 81. 24. M. R. Waldman. "New Approaches to 'Biblical' material in the Qur'an."The Muslim World I, 1 (Januaxy 1985): 5. 25. "YU.Suf." The Encyclopedia of Islam. 3: 1178-79. 26. M. Asad. The Meaning of the Quran (Gibraltar: Dar a! Andalus. 1980),357 (emphasis is my own). 27. Stern, "Muhammad and Joseph," 212. 28. Ibid. Surat YU.Suf is thought to belong to the late Meccan period. Itshould also be pointed out that MuJ:lammad's primwy identification was withMoses. This is richly developed in the Sirah literature. See G. D. Newby, TheMaking of the Last Prophet. 24. 29. M. J. Kister, "Legends in tafsir and hadith literature: The Creation ofAdam and Related Stories." in Approaches to the HiStory of the Interpretation of the Qur'c'in (ed.) A. Rippin (Oxford, 1988). 30. Ibid. 31. A. F. L. Beeston. "Notes on a Middle-Arabic Joseph Poem," Bulletin ofthe School of Oriental and African Studies 40, 2 (1977): 287. On the use of"qassas," seeN. Abbot, Arabic Uterwy Papyri. 32. R. Y. Ebied and M. J. L. Young, (eels.). "The Stoxy of Joseph In ArabicVerse" (The Leeds Arabic Manuscript 347). Supplement #3 to. Annual of uedsUniversity Oriental Society (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1975). 6-7. Notes 153

33. Ibid., 48. A parallel use of an "Egyptianized" text to ascribe a Jewish

legend to Egyptian Jewish sources may be found in J. Heinemann, Aggadahand its Development (Jerusalem: Keter. 1974), 56. 34. Both Joseph and Daniel function in their respective tales as dreaminterpreters for foreigner rulers. See C. H. Gordon, Ancient Near East, 77, note10. On the affinities between the Joseph narratives and the tale of Daniel, seeSandra B. Berg, The Book of Esther, S. B. L. Dissertation Series. Number 44(Missoula: Montana Scholars Press. 1979), 143. 35. Ebied and Young, "The Story of Joseph," 48. 36. "Tawrat," The Encyclopedia of Islam. 1st ed., 4: 706. On Jewish-Islamicpolemics see N. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands: A History and Source Book(Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1979), 11-13, 150-51, 25!H>O. 37 . ."Tahrif," op. cit., 618-19. Similar arguments were presented byChristian polemicists. Moshe Pearlmann has pointed out that "Syriac Christiantheologians accused the Jews of having tampered with the Scriptures with theresult that differences arose between the Hebrew text and the Septuagint. M.Pearlmann, "Polemics Between Islam and Judaism," in S. D. Goiteln (ed.),Religion in a Religious Age (Princeton, 1965). 38. Al-Tabari, The Commentary on the Qur'cin Vol. I. with introduction andnotes by J. Cooper (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987), 450. 39. A. F. L. Beeston, Baupwi's Commentary on Surah 12 of the Qur'c'in(Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1963), 1. 40. Hodgson, The Venture of Islam. 177. 41. Beeston, "Notes," 3. 42. Abu Isl:Rq al-Tha'labi, Q~ al-Anbiya. On the significance of narrativedetallin the Jewish-Muslim polemic. see the introduction to M. Pearlmann (ed.and trans.), ljham al-Yahud (Silencing the Jews), Proceedings of the Academyfor Jewish Research, 23. (New York, 1964). 43. C. H. Gordon. "The Patriarchal Age," Journal of Bible and Religion(1953), 21:242. "The idea conveyed by Joseph's dream- that stars symbolizeIndividual people, is a well known one in the Ancient Near East. When Joseph(Genesis 37:9) dreams of heavenly bodies symbolizing people, his imagery isthat duplicated in the Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic (I:v:26-27); (II:I:1-23), whereGilgamesh dreams of a star symbolizing Enkidu." 44. ai-Tha'lati, Qisas, 236-37. On the semantic range of the Arabic wordtawrat, see R Firestone, Journeys in Holy Lands, 189, note 26. On the earlyMuslim view of history and the Torah as an historical document. a seminalwork tf Franz Rosenthal's "The lniluence of the Biblical Tradition on MuslimHistoriography," In B. Lewis and P. M. Holt, Historians of the Middle East(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962). 45. "Salman al-Farisi," Encyclopedia ofIslam. 4, 16-17. 46. On Ka'b, see the article in Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd ed .. andFirestone, Journeys in Holy Lands, 113. On Wahb. see B. Lewis, The Jews ofIslam. 97. For an example of Islamic legends transmitted In the names of bothKa'b al-at_bar and Wahb ibn Munabbih, see G. Newby, The Making of the LastProphet. 227- 28. 47. I. Friedlander. The Heterodoxies of the Shiites According to ibn Hazm{New Haven, 1909), 33. On Ibn Hazm. see also B. Lewis, The Jews of Islam (Princeton, 1984), 87. On Ibn Hazm's views on the Biblical narratives. see H.Lazarus-Yafeh. Intertwined Worlds (Princeton, 1992). The description of the154 Notes

Kharijites is from J. A. Williams. "Khalijis," The Encyclopedia of Religion (New

York, 1987), 8: 288. 48. T. Noldeke and F. Schwally, Geschichte des Qorans (Leipzig, 1909-38},II, 94. On Kharijite ideology, see G. Levi Della Vita, "Karidjites," Encyclopedia ofIslam 2nd ed. (1978}, IV: 1076-77. 49. J. Burton, The Collection of the Qur'cin (Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, 1977}, 83. 50. D. Grossberg, "Number Harmony and Life Spans in the Bible,"Semitics (1984}, 9:54. On the distinction between aoot and sheva.tim, see N.Leibowitz, Studies in Bereshit (Jerusalem: The Jewish Agency, 1974}, 430. 51. B. Mandelbaum (ed.}, Pesikta de Rav Kahana: With Commentary andIntroduction (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1962), 61-62. As thethree names were thought to be obscure and foreign to the reader of the Bible,the Midrash provides a clue to their identity. 52. For a detailed analysis of this "successor" theme in Siirat Yiisuf, see S.M. Stern, "Joseph and Muhammad." 196-97. On the concept of nabi in Islam,see W. Brinner, "Prophets and Prophecy in the Islamic and Jewish Traditions"in Brinner and Ricks, Studies in Islamic and Judaic Tradition, II, 63-82. 53. S. D. Goitein, Jews and Arabs (New York: Schocken Books, 1965),55-56. 54. W. M. Thackston. The Tales of the Prophets of alKisa'i. 208-9. 55. G. Newby, The Making of the Last Prophet, 143. On p. 115, Newbyprovides an ingenious explanation of the origins of the "Moses Son ofManasseh" legend. 56. Babylonian Talmud, Klddushin 49:b. 57. Freeman and Simon, Midrash Rabbah. 11:804. 58. I;brshin. both by itself and modified by bishin, appears in the Aramaicbowls. For examples. see Charles Isbell, Corpus of the Aramaic IncantationBowls, Society of Biblical Literature. Dissertation Series No. 17 (Missoula:Scholar's Press, 1975), 166, #318. On the use of /:Drshin as a magical term inUgaritlc, see C. H. Gordon, Ugaritic Textbook (Rome: Pontifical BiblicalInstitute, 1965), Glossary, item #903, where it is cited as appealing in text 126:6. On the use of l)arshin in Mandaic magical literature, see E. M.Yamauchi, Mandaic Incantation Texts (New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1967), 324. For Neusner's analysis of this Mldrash, see J. Neusner, E. Frerichs,and P. Flesher (eds.). Religion. Science, and Magic In Concert and In Conflict (Oxford, 1989}, 75-76. 59. A. S. Yahuda, The Language of the Pentateuch in its Relation toEgyptian (Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1933). 11. For a current bib-liography on the origin of 'abrek, see D. Redford, A Study, 226-28. Midrash Rabbah interprets abrek as a contraction "au (father) in widsom, rakh (young) in years." (90:3) 60. R. H. Charles, The Book of Jubilees: Translated From the Editor's Ethiopic Text (London: A. and C. Black, 1902). 226. On the difficulty of assigning a precise date to the composition of Jubilees see Lou H. Silberman's remarks in "Jubilees, Book of." EncyclopediaBrittanica. 1971. 13:101. 61. Brinner, Tha'labi, Qissas. 249. 62. Ibid.. 289. 63. Ibid. 64. "Gematria," Encyclopedia Judaica 7:367. Notes 155

65. "Abdjad," Encyclopedia of Islam (new edition) 1:97.

66. S. GevirtZ, "Tile Life Spans of Joseph and Enoch and the Parallelismsib'tayim-sib'lm wesib'ah." JoumalofBlblicalUterature (1977), 96:570. 67. J. Vergote. Joseph en Egypte (Louvain: Universite, 1959). For a surveyof the literature. see D. Spanel. Through Ancient Eyes: Egyptian Portraiture(Birmingham, 1988). 25. 68. GevirtZ. "Life Spans. 96:570. 69. J. G. Williams, "Number symbolism and Joseph as Symbol ofCompletion, Journal of Biblical Uterature ( 1979). 98:87. 70. Ibid., 98:86. (Emphasis is my own.) 71. Grossberg, "Number Harmony." 9:55-56. 72. Ibid., 9:64. 73. On Tolstoy's Hebrew studies. see H. Troyat, Tolstoy (New York. 1967).430. 74. On Manns' Joseph novels, see M. Yourcenar. "Humanism andOccultism in Thomas Mann." in The Dark Brain of Piranesi, and Other Essays.199-231. For a Jess laudatory view of the Joseph novels. see L. Fiedler'sremarks in "Master of Dreams: The Jew in a Gentile World" In To The Gentiles,where Fiedler characterizes Mann's work as a "true but tedious retelling of thetale." 75. For speculation on the historical and thematic relationship betweenGreek epic and Near Eastern literature see the extensive bibliography InRichard Y. Hathorn, Greek Mythology (Beirut, American University of BeirutPress. 1977). 35-36. On the "sociology of knowledge" aspect of this question.see M. Bernal, Black Athena. 400-38. For a discussion of the Church Fathers'views on Joseph and Bellerophon, see Donlger /Bonnefoy II 656. Some scholarsalso consider the "Hippolytus Triangle" and its many retellings an expression ofthe Potlphar's Wife moflt. See D. Keene, "The Hlppolytus Triangle East andWest," Yearbook of Comparative and GeneralUterature II. 1962, 162-71. As theattempted seduction and accusation of rape In the Phaedra genre Is directed bya stepmother towards her stepson, I have excluded it from this discussion.

Chapter 2 The Spurned Woman: Potiphar's Wife in Scripture

and Folklore 1. Stith Thompson, Motif Index of Folk Literature (Bloomington: TheUniversity of Indiana Press, 1955), V, MotifK 2111. 2. M. Bloomfield, "Joseph and Potiphar in Hindu Fiction." Transactionsand Proceedings of the American Philological Association, 54 (1923), 142. Notingthat "the tradition of the Prophet Yusuf is one of the most popular of all thecountries of Islam," Jan Knippert cites textual traditions in Berber, Javanese,and Swahili, which refashion much of the Tales of the Prophet literature. Seehis Islamic Legends: Histories of the Heroes, Saints, and Prophets of Islam(Leiden: Brill, 1985), 85-86. 3. This was first noted by E. Meyer. Geschichte des Altertums, 2 vols.(Stuttgart: J. G. Cottasche, 1931), II, 301. 4. Cyrus H. Gordon, The Common Background of Greek and HebrewCivilizations (New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1965), 119- 20. For otherClassical versions on our motif, see R Graves and R. Patai, Hebrew Myths(New York, 1964), 264. For a survey of the Bellerophon story in Greek sources,156 Notes

see T. Gantz, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources(Baltimore, 1993). 314-16. For a parallel Iranian myth, see V. S. Curtis,Persian Myths (London, 1993). 43. For a survey of the Bellerophon myth, see Y.Bonnefoy's Mythologies, (ed.) by W. Doniger (Chicago: University of ChicagoPress, 1991). 1:401-3. On the genealogy of Bellerophon, as described in Greeksources, see F. and J. Boswell, What Men or Gods Are Tilese?: A GenealogicalApproach to Classical Mythology (London. 1980). 106-9. On the stylisticdifferences between Biblical epic and Homeric epic. see E. Auerbach'smagisterial essay, "Odysseus Scar" in Mimesis: Tile Representation of Reality inWestern Literature. There are very striking contrasts between the texts thatAuerbach examines, Book 19 of the Odyssey and Genesis 22. the "Binding ofIsaac. Less striking are the differences between the two versions of Potiphar'swife under discussion here. 5. The recent study referred to is that of S. Hollis. Tire Tale ofn.vo Brothers(1990). For a discussion of the comparative material on Joseph and divinefigures. see G. Mussies, "The Interpretario Judaica of Serapis." in Studies inHellenistic Religions (ed.) M. J. Vermasern (Leiden: E. J. Brill. 1979). On Josephas hero. see Lord Raglan's Tile Hero: A Study in Tradition, Part II. For a recentdiscussion, see J. R. King, "The Joseph Story and Divine Politics: Journal ofBiblicalUterature (1987). 577-94. Despite the similarities between the classicaland biblical "Joseph" stories there are profound differences between them. AsGraves and Patai point out. "No moral conclusions were drawn from the deedsof Greek heroes...Famous warriors of an earlier generation, such as Theseusand Bellerophon, had been destined to end miserably, victims of divinenemesis. yet Abraham, Isaac. and Joseph died in peaceful old age and werehonorably gathered to their fathers. R Graves and R. Patai. Hebrew Myths:Tile Book of Genesis (New York. 1964). 16-17. 6. References are to the following editions: R Lattimore, Tire iliad (Chicago:University of Chicago Press. 1962); J . Wilson in Pritchard, AN.E.T. All Biblicalquotations are from the 1985 JPS translation unless otherwise noted. 7. Ruth Rabbah 6: l. 8. This type of behavior among the gods is exemplified in the AncientEgyptian tale of. "The Contendings of Horus and Seth. For a discussion of thistext see Gordon, Tire Common Background of Greek and Hebrew Civilizations. 125--26. 9. See M. Astour, Hellenosemitica. 2nd ed. (Leiden: E. J . Brill, 1962),258-61. 10. T. Gantz, Early Greek Myth, 315. 11. For a comprehensive survey of the literature. see Susan T. Hollis, TileAncient Egyptian "Tale of Two Brothers": The Oldest Fairy Tale in the World(London: University of Oklahoma Press. 1990), 1-48, 97-102. 12. Genesis Rabbah 87. l. For a more detailed reading of Joseph aswisdom literature figure. and for a feminist critique of the Potiphar's Wife motif.seeS. Niditch in Tile Woman's Bible Commentary (London. 1992). 13. Genesis Rabbah. 87, 3. Rashi (39-6) quotes a variation of this Midrashin which Joseph is chastised for preening himself while his father is inmourning for him. For other indications of Joseph's complicity in the seductionattempt see J. Kugel, In Potiphar's House: Tire Interpretive Life of Biblical Texts(1990), 94-98. 14. In similar fashion the Greek sources differ as to the woman's name.Homer calls her Anteia, other writers (Apollodorus, Pindar) name her Notes 157

History: Shifting Boundaries in Sex and Gender (New Haven, 1991), 75. G.Newby. The Making of the Last Prophet. 103. 38. M. Lings. Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources. 339. 39. H. E. Kassis, A Concordance of the Qur'dn (Berkeley, University ofCalifornia Press, 1983), 675-76. 40. All references to the Qur'an in translation are to Alfred Arbeny, TheKoran Interpreted (Toronto: Macmillan, 1969). 41. On teraphim, see C. H. Gordon, "Erebu Marriage." Studies on theCivilization and Culture of Nuzi and the Hurrians (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.1981), 155-60. For references to other readings of the terophimincident. see T.Frymer-Kensky, In the Wake of the Goddesses (New York, 1992). 268. 42. For a feminlst reading of the trickster motif in Genesis, see S. Niditch.The Women's Bible Commentary (London. 1992). 18-24. 43. R Khawam (ed. and trans.). The Subtle Ruse: The Book of ArabicWisdom and Guile, Bibliotheque Nationale, Manuscript #3548 (London: EastWest Books, 1980). 44. John Payne. trans .. The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night. 9vols. (London: 1882-1894). All citations are from Payne's translation unlessotherwise indicated. l have also consulted Burton's translation. H. Haddawy's1990 English translation and J. J. Rivlin's Hebrew translation, 'E lef Layla wa-Layla (Tel Aviv: Kiryat Sefer, 1947). My comments on the kayd motif in TheThousand and One Nights refer to the early Nights material and the largercorpus of tales that were translated into French and English in the eighteenthand nineteenth centuries. As both M. Mahdi and H. Haddawy point out. muchof what was translated and anthologized In Payne, Lane. and Burton, is ofquestionable authenticity. for "the mania for collecting more stories and'completing' the work Jed some copyists to resort even to forgery. For thehistory of these additions and their effect on the various translations see theintroduction to H. Haddawy's recent translation of The Arabian Nights (NewYork, 1990). 45. On the jinn, see J. B. Long. "Demons," The Encyclopedia of Religion(New York, 1987), 4:286. On the Sindibadnama seeS. Belcher. "The Diffusionof the Book of Sindbad." Fabula. 28. 1987. 34-58. 46. Payne. Arabian Nights. Ill, 7. For a feminist reading. of the kayd motifin the Nights see F. Maltl-Douglas, Woman's Body, Woman's Word: Gender andDiscourse inArabo-Islamic Writing (Princeton, 1991). 47. Ibid, Ill, 8. For the suggestion that this frame devise is related to thecontent and structure of the Book of Esther. see J. Jacobs, "Arabian Nights,"The Jewish Encyclopedia (New York, 1904). 48. On the trickster In Middle Eastern folklore see Haim Schwartzbaum,Studies in Jewish and World Folklore (Berlin: De Gryter. 1968). 176-77. On thetheme In Biblical literature see S. Niditch, The Women's Bible Commentary(London, 1992), 18-24. 49. Payne. Arabian Nights. V. 260. In a footnote to his translation of the"Malice of Women" section, Sir Richard Burton argued that these tales "belongto a certain stage when the sexes are at war with each other; and theycharacterize chivalrous Europe as well as misogynous Asia." (Burton, 6, 129). 50. R Irwin, The Arabian Nights: A Companion (London: 1994). 75. 51. Payne, Arabian Nights, V. 345. 52. D. Pinault, Story-Telling Techniques in the Arabian Nights (Leiaen, 1992). 58-59. As Pinault notes "Sura 12:28is echoed elsewhere In the Nights." Notes 159

53. On this motif In Geryl. see D. J. Enright, "The Tale of Genjt and TwoWomen Diarists, A Maniafor Sentences (London, 1983), 87. M

18. "Egypt." Encyclopedia Brittanica. 18, 146.

19. C. H. Gordon, The Ancient Near East. 88. On current Views on the dateof the Joseph narratives see Coats. Anchor Bible Dictionary, Ill:980. 20. For citations and classifications, see F. Brown, S. R. Driver. C. A.Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press, 1907), 1072-73. 21. Loc. Cit 22. Herodotus. Book 11:98 (G. Rawlinson translation). 23. Book II:95 24. Redford, 235. 25. Yahuda, Language, 95, italics added. 26. W. L. Humphreys. "Novella," in G. W. Coats, (ed.), Saga. Legend, Tale,Novella. Fable: Narrative Forms in Old Testament Uterature (Journal for theStudy of the Old Testament, Supplement Series 35, 1985). 27. Gordon, The Ancient Near East. 173. 28. Loc. Cit, note #9. 29. C. H. Gordon, "Fratriarchy in the Old Testament," Journal of BiblicalUterature (1935), 54:226. 30. For a comprehensive survey of this topic, see K. Spanier, "Aspects ofFratriarchy in the Old Testament." Ph.D. Dissertation, New York University,1989. 31. Redford, A Study, 71. 32. See chapter 5 for a full treatment of the Asenath legends. 33. L. Ginzberg. On Jewish Law and Legend. 77-124. On Ginzberg's oevre,see "Ginzberg, Louis" in the Encyclopedia Judaica (7:584) and S. Spiegel'sintroduction to the one volume work The Legends of the Bible. 34. L. Ginzberg. The Legends of the Jews (Philadelphia: The JewishPublication Society, 1928). 11:68 35. Redford, A Study, 76. A similar series of "converted imperfects"appears in Genesis 25:34. 36. Babylonian Talmud. Rosh Hashanah 11a. Also see the parallel legend.mentioned in the Book of Jubilees. that Jacob heard of Joseph's "death" onYom Kippur. 37. This tradition is cited in Rash!, Genesis 42:23. 38. Both sources are quoted and translated in Ginzberg. Legends, II:96. 39. Rash!, Genesis 43:32. 40. Author's translation. For a review of Ibn Ezra's critical methodologyand of the Views expressed in his commentaries see, "Ibn Ezra as Commentatoron the Bible," EncyclopediaJudaica. 8, 1166-68. 41. M. Asad, The Meaning ofth.e Qur'an (Gibraltar: Dar AI Andalus. 1980). 42. Qur'an, Sura 10:91. Sura 11:98. 43. al-Tha'labi's Qisas al-Anbiya', 227. 44. Al-Maqrizi, alkllip,twa'lathdr 1:207. 45. On the Jewish parallels to these legends. see Ginzberg. 46. al-Tha'labi, Qisas, 283-4. 47. Ibid., 278-79. 48. On the ecumene of the Ancient Near East, see C. H. Gordon, TheAncient Near East On the application of this model to the Muslim world, seethe introduction to Hodgson's The Venture of Islam In his last published paperthe late A. Hourani affirmed the validity and relevance of Hodgson's views on Notes 161

the Islamic oikownene. See A. Houranl. "Patterns of the Past" in T. Naff. Pathsto the Middle East (SUNY, 1992), 46, 55.

Chapter 5 The Women of the Joseph Story

1. For the opposing view, that women are treated as fundamentallyinferior and singled out as tricksters, see E. Fuch's suggestion that gender Is aprimary factor which determines the literary presentation of deception in thebiblical narrative. Semeia, 42 (1988), 68. My analysis In this chapter IsInformed by T. F.rymer-Kensky's In the Wake of the Goddesses (New York,1992). On the Issue of "woman as trickster," see the Items cited In Frymer-Kensky, 255, and the articles in J. Cheryl Exum and J . W. H. Bos, "Reasoningwith the Foxes: Female Wit in a World of Male Power." Seme!a. 42 (1988). 2. S. Niditch in The Women's Bible Commentary (London, 1992), 24. 3. Whether this Biblical portrait Is an accurate portrayal of the socialreality of Ancient Israel is another matter. As Frymer-Kensky points out. theBible provides us with "a portrait of biblical, not ancient Israelite, women, 256,note 19. SeeS. D. Goiteln, "Women as Authors in the Bible." in I. Zemorah,Women of the Bible (Hebrew) (Tel Aviv: Davar, 1964). On the status of women inthe heroic period of Biblical history, cf. C. H. Gordon, "Homer and the Bible,"Hebrew Union College Annual (1955) 26, 78-80. 4. Zohar, I. 216 B. 5. ~: The Encyclopedia of Islam (Leiden: E. J. Brill. 1913-1942), 4.1103-4. 6. On the use and origins of this phrase, see E. Ben Yehuda. DictionaryandThesaurusoftheHebrewLanguage(NewYork, 1960), V: 416. 7. Bai<;Jawi quoted in J. Macdonald. "Joseph In the Qur'an and MuslimCommentary." The Muslim World (1956) 46:113-31, 207-24. 8. Genesis Rabbah, 74.9. 9. Rash! is quoting the Babylonian Talmud, Sotah I3b. See also GenesisRabbah, 85:3. 10. Genesis Rabbah. 82:10. 11. For the Islamic sources, see G. Le Strange, Palestine Under theMuslims, Beirut, 1965, 314. For the Jewish legend, see Ginzberg, Legends, V,377. 12. "Rachel," Jewish Encyclopedia. 10, 305-7. 13. Ibid. 14. Speiser. Genesis, 299. That this evaluation is still current In somecircles is confirmed in John Van Seters recent comment, !here seems to belittle dispute among Biblical exegetes that this chapter represents such anawkward digression within the Joseph story that it cannot have been originalto it." J. Van Seters, Prologue to History (1992). For a discussion of Abrabanel's164 Notes

the Serah's tomb legends. 57. The question of Asenath's origins was discussed earlier. On Tamar's"Canaanite" or Israelite origins see the sources collected in Y. Zakovitch and A.Shinan, The Tale of Judah and Tamar (Jerusalem: The Hebrew University,1991), 22.

"This erudite and accessible study of sexual temptation and intrigue over-comes the barriers of time, religious confessions, and academic disciplines tounfold a powerful, universal tale for the modern reader. Shalom Goldman, writ-ing with great knowledge and without pretense or jargon, is able to hold thereader spellbound as he interweaves the complex turns and interpretations ofthe Joseph story through many cultures and times. Goldman, never in the thrallof any one discipline or school of thought, gives us a truly interdisciplinaryunderstanding of the underlying forces that have made this story one of themost popular tales in world literature." -Gordon D. Newby, Emory University One of the world's oldest recorded folktales tells the story of a handsomeyoung man and the older woman in whose house he resides. Overcome by herfeelings for him, the woman attempts to seduce him. When he turns her downshe is enraged, and to her husband she accuses the young man of attacking her.The husband, seemingly convinced of his wife's innocence, has the young manpunished. But it is precisely that punishment that leads to the hero's vindicationand eventual rise to power and prominence. In the West we know this tale--dassified in folklore as the Potiphar's Wifemotif-from its vivid narration in the Hebrew Bible. But as Shalom Goldmandemonstrates in this book, the Bible's is only one telling of a story that appearsin the scriptures and folklore of many peoples and cultures, in many differenteras, including ancient Egypt, classical Greece, and ancient Mesopotamia, aswell as post-Biblical Jewish literature, the Qur'i'm, and Inuit culture. Goldmancompares and contrasts the treatment of this motif especially in the literatureand lore of the ancient Near East, Biblical Israel, and early Islam, at the sametime touching on gender issues-the status of women in Middle Eastern soci-eties and the varying constructions of male-female relationships-and thevexed question of "originality" in the narratives of the monotheistic traditions. Shalom Goldman is Assistant Professor of Hebrew Studies at DartmouthCollege. He is also the editor of Hebrew and the Bible in America and the coau-thor of the libretto of the American opera Akhnaten, music by Philip Glass.